


Need A Room

by Cuptat



Series: Need A Room [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Barista Lance (Voltron), Big Brother Shiro (Voltron), Controlling Ex-boyfriend, Domestic Fluff, Ex-boyfriend Lotor, F/M, Fireworks, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Kitty Blue, Kitty Red, M/M, Mechanic Keith (Voltron), Mentions of Sex, Minor Injuries, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Police Officer Shiro (Voltron), Post-Break Up, Roommates, Summer Fic, Tattoo Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-05-28 03:40:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 35,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15039902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cuptat/pseuds/Cuptat
Summary: “Look,” Shiro started without giving Keith a chance to protest once letting him go. “Lance needs a place to stay for the summer.”“Lance?! As in Lance McClain?” Keith whisper harshly.Not Lance. He could feel his heartbeat pick up speed at the mention of his name. He still wasn’t sure as to why that always happened.“Yes,” Shiro inspected the red mark Keith left on his hand. “He was going to stay with Allura but that means sleeping on her couch. So, I said he can stay here.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't know what I'm doing here. I planned this out as a summer fic and hopefully I finish it in the next few months. I don't have an update schedule but give me a couple of weeks to finish things for the next chapter. This is my first time posting so be gentle.

“Keith!” Shiro’s voice rang from down the hall followed by his heavy footsteps. The house was not that big, Keith knew he only had seconds before he was walking into the room to which Keith had unfortunately left the door open.

Shiro had moved in with Allura a few months ago, why the fuck was he here. At 3 am no less.

Shiro rounded the corner into Keith’s room.

“What are you still doing up?” He filled the doorway with his massive form, standing with his arms crossed, still in his uniform. Badge and all.

“Reading.” Keith showed no emotion as he marked his place in the book he was holding. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s my house I can come and go as I please.” Shiro then proceeded to dive onto the bed next to Keith causing them both to bounce up wildly. A shit eating grin was spread across his face.

“It’s just weird you know since you live with Allura now.” Keith tossed his book back on the night stand and crawled off the bed. “So, what has cursed me with your presence?”

Shiro shrugged, “Can’t I come by to see my baby bro?”

Keith leaned to the side giving him a clear view of his clock. “At… 3:26 am, no, no you can’t.”

“Fine. I need a favor.”

“At 3:26 in the morning?” Keith deadpanned.

“Don’t start with me.” Shiro stood and ruffled Keith’s hair. “I’ve bailed you out of trouble plenty of times.” Keith swatted him away as Shiro continued. “If I was counting I’d say you owe me indefinitely.”

Keith shrugged, Shiro wasn’t wrong but Keith wasn’t going to give his brother the satisfaction by saying it.

Shiro paused a moment, “I need to rent out my room.”

“What?!” Keith practically yelled.

“SHH!” Shiro’s hand clamped over Keith’s mouth to silence anymore outbursts. “He’s in the living room. And don’t BITE!”

Keith gave him his best death glare as he released the skin of Shiro’s palm from his teeth. He secretly hoped it left a mark.

“Promise to keep it down and I’ll let go.”

Keith nodded while still glaring. Shiro had no idea how much this was going to fuck up Keith’s life. He valued his privacy and did not want to have to deal with a roommate. He was just no a people person.

“Look,” Shiro started without giving Keith a chance to protest once letting him go. “Lance needs a place to stay for the summer.”

“Lance?! As in Lance McClain?” Keith whisper harshly.

Not Lance. He could feel his heartbeat pick up speed at the mention of his name. He still wasn’t sure as to why that always happened.

“Yes,” Shiro inspected the red mark Keith left on his hand. “He was going to stay with Allura but that means sleeping on her couch. So, I said he can stay here.”

“Shiro you own this house in full you don’t need to rent it out to anyone, let alone Lance.”

Keith couldn’t have Lance as a roommate, he wouldn’t be able to keep it together, he could hardly stand to stay in the same room as Lance on the few occasions they had met. Which Keith could count on one hand.

“Well, he’s not exactly going to be paying rent.”

“Then why?” Keith was getting nervous just knowing Lance was in the other room. “You know he hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you.” Shiro sighed, “His plans fell through and I don’t want him staying with us.” Shiro lowered his voice enough that Keith had to lean closer to hear his next words. “It’s a huge cock block to have your girlfriend’s best friend crashing on the couch all summer.”

Keith’s death glare was back.

“Morning sex Keith, it’s like the best way to start the day. DO NOT rob me of this.” Shiro was glaring right back. 

The stare down lasted only a minute before Keith gave in. He knew it was a lost cause.

“Fine.”

\----

Lance sat on the couch with his head in his hands. Allura rubbed small circles on his back as she sat next to him, grounding him. Her presence alone was what was keeping him from losing it.

He had called her after the fight with Lotor. He felt raw from all the hurtful words that had flew back and forth between them. It hadn’t been the first time, but he decide that it was going to be the last.

Normally he wouldn’t bother Allura with drama like this, but Hunk had gone home for the summer and Pidge lived with her brother. He needed a place to crash. Allura had seemed like the best option until Lance was remined that Shiro was now living with her.

He won’t admit that he was a bit mortified when Allura, with Shiro in tow, found him walking down the road at 2 am with tears streaming down his face. Too upset to even explain what had happened he just muttered that it was over. Allura, being the Goddess she was, knew what he meant and knew just what to do. She wasted no time ordering Shiro to take them to the nearest diner that had milkshakes.

Lance took a deep breath and lifted his head. The milkshake at the diner had calmed him down, but only just enough to get him here. Now that he was sitting in the living room of what he knows to be Shiro’s house, and he was panicking. Shiro said it was going to be fine. But. But…

How was he going to survive staying the summer with Keith Fucking Kogane.

Lance held the leftover milkshake letting the cold seep into his hands, focusing on it to push all his other emotions deep down. He will deal with those later.

Right now, he only wanted a place to sleep. To let everything go for tonight.

“It will be okay.” Allura broke the silence in the room. “Maybe even better than you think,” She plucked the shake out of his hands. “Shiro’s been a bit worried about Keith being alone. So, you’ll be doing him a favor really.” She sighed setting the shake on the coffee table. She eyed it only a moment longer before turning back to Lance. “Why don’t I show you to Shiro’s room, you can get some sleep and talk with Keith in the morning.”

Thank god, Lance didn’t want to face Keith tonight. He’s sure his face is a mess.

“Sure.” He tried not to sound so defeated but he couldn’t deny how beaten down he was.

Allura took his hand as she stood and lead him to the hall. Lance could see the light spilling from one of the rooms, must be Keith’s.

“First door on the right is the one and only bathroom, be nice and try not to hog it all to yourself.” She smiled.

Lance just huffed knowing he was going to take a long bath at some point. God, he hoped they had a big tub.

 As they continued Lance made sure to stare straight ahead as they passed the open door. He didn’t look up to see what Keith and Shiro were doing but he could feel their eyes on him as he passed. Their voices coming to a halt.

Yeah, this was going to be fucking fun.

He dropped his bag on the bed and gave Allura one last hug reassuring her he would be alright.

He closed the door of the bedroom as quietly as possible. Leaning his back against the door he listened to the whispers and shuffling on the other side.

He slowly slid down to the floor as silent tears made their way down his face. He just let them fall.

The front door shut, and soft footsteps that could only belong to Keith, make their way down the hallway. He heard them pause before they faded away with the sound of another door closing.

Lance doesn’t move until the sun comes up.

Keith is already gone when he goes out to use the bathroom. Bless Shiro, the tub was massive.

Thankful that today was his day off Lance stripped off the stale clothes from yesterday and eased into a tub full of hot water. Slowly the tension released from his body. He frowned at Keith’s all-in-one body wash and shampoo. Thank god he brought his own stuff.

After he pulled on an old t-shirt and shorts. Pulling back the covers of the perfectly made bed he crawled in.

The tears made one more appearance, falling into the pillow as he fell asleep again.

 

____

 

Keith didn’t see Lance before leaving for work. Maybe he left a little too early to get coffee and was now an hour early for his shift. He wasn’t avoiding Lance, he was just giving him some space. Yeah, space.

As a mechanic for the precinct Shiro worked for no one cared if he was early.

His phone buzzed in his jacket pocket as he changed into his work clothes. Digging it out of his locker he saw Shiro’s name and let it go to voicemail.

Shiro’s name popped right back up as he called again.  

“What?” Keith answered after it was apparent that Shiro wasn’t giving up.

“Keith, I can see you ignoring my calls.”

Keith spun around to the locker room door and sure enough Shiro’s glaring face filled the small window above the door.

Keith hung up on him as he hopped down and pushed his way in throw the door. He was in casual clothes not his officer uniform, but his badge was clipped to his belt.

“Didn’t think you would be in this early, doesn’t your shift start in like an hour or something?” Shiro leaned against the lockers.

“I came in early.” Keith shrugged his coveralls over his tank top.

“Why?”

“To… leave early.” Keith didn’t want to do this now.

“Not to avoid Lance?” Shiro smirked at him knowing the truth.

“No.”

“Ok, well I need your help. It’s work stuff so make sure you clock in.” Shiro sighed, “I’ll meet you by the tow truck.”

Ugh, Keith hated towing.

Shiro stood next to the flatbed truck and handed Keith the order for the pick-up.

“Alfor ordered this?” Keith question looking over the paperwork, because Chief Alfor never sent in the orders. The detectives did the orders. 

“Well, it’s by Allura’s request.” Shiro shrugged and climbed into the cab.

Keith climbed in to the driver seat. “Why did Allura want a car picked up she’s forensics, don’t you the detectives do this stuff?”

“It’s Lance’s car Keith. _Lotor_ did a number on it. That is why we had to pick him up last night.” Shiro pulled out aviators and Keith laughed because it was such a cliché.

“Oh, great.” Did everything have to be about Lance right now?

Shiro smiled, then continued to talk about a movie Allura and him saw. Keith welcomed the change in topic. 

 

“Well shit.” Keith stood in front of what was Lance’s 04 Honda accord. He could see why Lance needed a ride. All four tires had been slashed, all the windows had been shattered, lights all smashed, and large dents in the sides showed that a bat had been used rather effectively.

Shiro snapped pictures of all the damage before Keith started loading it on to the flat bed. He wondered if it was this bad when Lance walked away from it.

“Allura is going to see if Lance wants to press charges, but she doesn’t think he will.” Shiro sighed as they got back in the truck.

“Bad breakup or something?” Keith must not have sounded as casual as he thought because Shiro sent him a questioning look before answering him.

“As far as I know.” Shiro shrugged but continued to eye Keith over his aviators. “Why’d you want to know?”

Keith shrugged and tried to play it off as if were nothing, but if Lance was available then maybe….

“I just want to know what I’m going to find when I get home.”

“You’ll find Lance pretending like nothing happened. So, don’t ask and be nice.” Shiro ordered.

“I’m always nice. _He’s_ the one that starts shit with me.”

“No. You both rile each other up to the point of arguing and he doesn’t need that right now.” Shiro had started to use his dad voice. “Right now he needs a safe place. He won’t show it, but I think this breakup was a bad one. Worse than the one with Nyma.”

Keith didn’t see the aftermath of the breakup with Nyma, but he remembers how worried Shiro and Allura had been.

They pulled into the precinct and Keith started to unload the car. Shiro wanted to collect any other evidence from the inside.

“I’m going to break with Pidge, call when you’re done.” Keith called, Shiro who was already in the car waved him off as Keith headed out.

____

 

Lance woke up to the afternoon sun hitting his face. He forced himself out of bed and cleaned himself up. He made sure to text Allura and say he was fine. This was not like his other breakups.  

This was different.

This time he was the one to walk away.

The house quiet. This was not as comforting as it should have been for he knew Keith was a rather quite person when he wasn’t fighting with him.

He could be lurking anywhere.

He slowly made his way to the kitchen, relaxed when he saw that no one else was home. He wasn’t hungry, so he skipped the fridge and started up the coffee maker.

A low growl sounded behind him as he put the coffee filters away.

Lance spun around to find a Bengal cat with green eyes sitting on the counter glaring at him. He studied her for a moment, she had a red collar with a name tag ‘Red’ on it.

What a lame name for such a beautiful cat.

“Well hello gorgeous.” He reached out to pet her but Red hissed and swatted at his hand. He snatched it back just in time to avoid her claws.

“I see you’re defiantly Keith’s cat.” He sent his own glare before turning and finding a cup.

He began to pour the coffee into his cup when he felt a set of paws and claws hit his shoulder then the searing pain burning his hand.

“AAHH” he ran to the sink to run cold water over the burn from the coffee. He turned and glared at Red who was perched back on the counter glaring at him again.

“What the hell?!” Lance dried his hands on a towel and inspected the burn. It was only a small red spot but the sting was still there.

Pointing at the cat and back at himself, “You and me are gonna have problems, and that is something I don’t need right now.”

His phone buzzed in his pocket, continuing to glare at the cat as he picked it up.

His tone may have been too harsh when he answered the phone, “Hello.”

“Hello, to you too, you sound delightful today.” sarcasm laced Allura’s voice.

“Sorry, I just had the pleasure of meeting Keith’s cat and now I have a burn on my hand.”

“What did you do? Red is an angel.” Allura laughed.

“No, she attached me while I was making coffee.”

“Lance she’s harmless.”

“Harmless! Keith, probably trained her to bite my head off.” Lance wiped up the spilled coffee and continued to fill his cup. Turning so he could keep Red in his sights.

“Oh, she will warm up to you, you just have to treat her right.”

“Allura you know I know how to treat a lady, but Satan’s feline is another issue.”

“I have faith that you will have her purring in your hands in no time, but I called for another reason.” Allura paused, “It’s about your car.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that just drop it off and I’ll get it fixed later.” Lance knew he needed new tires anyways, he could ride the bus and train until he got new ones.

“No, Lance it’s not just the tires.” It sounded like Allura was shuffling papers. “Is that all you saw before you left? Did you see Lotor slash your tires?”

There she goes acting like a cop. Shiro was probably asking Allura to do the questioning in hopes Lance would open up more, but he told them last night he wanted a clean break. He was not going to press charges, he just wanted Lotor gone.

“No, I didn’t see him do it,” and Lance hadn’t but he knows Lotor was trying to keep him there by destroying his means of escape. “but It’s fine, they were balding anyways.”

“But it was just the tires that were damaged when you left?”

Lance’s tone turned cold. “Yes, just the tires. What else?”

“Well, there is damage to the windows, the tail lights and head lights, dents in the body, the seats inside were slashed and that is just part of the cosmetic damage. There is sugar in the gas tank, the battery is missing, it looks as if the wiring has been ripped out and most of the fluids have been drained from hoses being cut.” Allura sighed. “The timing belt was even cut.”

“I don’t really know what a timing belt is but that doesn’t sound good.”

“Lance, I know you don’t want too, but you should press charges. Shiro thinks he’s got enough evidence and…”

“Fine.” He knew she wouldn’t let this go. “At least document this.”

“Ok,” Allura’s tone softened, “I’ll have Shiro bring by the paperwork tonight.”

“Can we do this tomorrow?” He still felt the strong need to be alone. He wasn’t ready to deal with people just yet. “I just need tonight to myself.”

“We can do that.” Another pause. “Are you doing ok?”

“I’m ok.” He assured her. 

“Ok, call me if you need something, no matter what time.”

“Thanks, Allura.”

Lance pocketed his phone again.

Taking his coffee into the living room he sat down and thought over his plans. From the sound of it he would need time and money to fix his car. There was the bus, and he could get rides from Hunk when he got back.

Maybe Keith would help him out too… Nope not even gonna try.

Whatever, it didn’t matter how he got around, or how mad he was about it all. What mattered is that he was out of whatever it was he had with Lotor.

He jolted out of his train of thought as paws and claws hit the back of his head. Red jumped off him again.

That cat was out to get him.

____

 

Keith didn’t see Lance when he got home. He noticed the cup in the sink, so Lance must have come out at some point. Plus, Shiro mentioned that Lance had decided to press charges, so he had to have spoken to him sometime today. Keith was not sure if he should be concerned or not. Lance could take care of himself, but it was surprising the amount of damage done to Lance’s car.

That was not normal.

Keith met Lotor once. It had been the last time he had seen Lance a few months ago.

The group had gotten together for a night out and Shiro had dragged Keith along. Lance had brought Lotor with him.

Keith is still not sure what the guys deal was but after the introductions were done Lotor seemed possessive over Lance. Keith got the feeling that he was the cause of this as Lotor seemed to place himself between Keith and Lance, Lotor went as far as to answer for Lance anytime Keith asked a question.

To ease the situation Keith had removed himself from it. He chatted up some cutie at the bar than bailed. Not thinking twice about it.

But now, looking back he could see the red flags. Lotor’s behavior coupled with the damage to the car was bad.

Keith suddenly felt protective of Lance.

He needed to let out these weird feelings. Without wasting any time, he changed and headed to the basement where the weights sat and a punching bag hung over mats. A home gym Shiro insisted on having.

Keith plugged his earbuds in and started his routine with the punching bag. He won’t admit that he pictured Lotor’s face on it.

Keith hardly notices a couple hours go by.

Exhausted he heads back upstairs, showers, and settles on the couch with the book he’s trying to finish. 

A meow sounded next to him. Red hops up into his lap and onto his shoulder. She makes herself comfortable as does Keith. Relaxing, he ignores the fleeting thoughts of the person in the other room. Without realizing he drifts to sleep slumped on the couch.

____

 

Lance’s stomach growled. He had been spent the better part of the night going over the list of damages to his car that Allura had sent him.

Even if he did the work himself it would cost thousands of dollars. Much more than the car was actually worth.

His stomach growled again, he hadn’t eaten all day. The problem was he still didn’t have an appetite and he had yet to pick up any food. Padding quietly to the kitchen he hoped Keith didn’t mind sharing his snacks for the night.

It was quiet, and Lance figured Keith was gone or in bed already.

He checked the fridge and found… nothing.

There was some ketchup and hot sauce packets in one of the drawers, half a stick of butter, and a jug of milk. The freezer had a package of frozen vegetables.

He moved to the cabinets. Ramen and Mac & cheese.

That is it.

What the fuck did Keith live off of?

He grabbed some ramen, then moved onto find something to cook with. 

“What are you doing?”

Lance looked up from where he was pulling a pot from the bottom cabinet to find Keith standing in the doorway. He sleepily rubbed his face before settling into a glare aimed at Lance.

“Sorry didn’t mean to wake you.” Lance notice Red was standing on Keith’s shoulders glaring at him too. “I was looking for something to eat.” He held up a package of ramen, “I’ll pay you back.”

“You missed one.” Keith’s stated.

“One what?”

“Slamming the cabinets, sounds like you missed one.” Keith continued to glare.

“Oh, sorry, I’ll be quite…” Lance broke off when he glanced at the pot he was holding. “Keith do you cook?”

“Yeah.”

“That is not microwavable?” 

Keith shrugged, “Yeah.”

Lance held up the pot, “This still has the price sticker on it.” He pulls out another pot, “My _God_ they all still have them!”

Keith crossed his arms and huffed, “So, they’re Shiro’s, I’ve never used them.”

“Keith, I helped Allura pick these out for you guys two years ago!” Lance put the pots back. “How did you survive this long?”

“Microwave.”

Lance laughed giving up. “Whatever man, I’m cooking. Want some?”

Keith relaxed a bit. “Sure.” He pulled Red into his arms and held her close to his chest in one arm.

Lance is convinced the cat hates him, but she seems to soften Keith. Or at least he stopped glaring.

____

 

Keith watched as Lance pulled what looked like random things out of the cabinets and add them to the noodles in the pot.

He couldn’t see any rhyme or reason to it so he went back to his book on the couch.

Soon he noticed the smell coming from the kitchen. It was heavenly.

Ramen never smelled like that when he made it.

Lance sat two bowls on the table. “You don’t have much to work with, but I think I managed.”

Keith joined him. He studied the bowl in front of him.

It didn’t look like ramen, or at least normal ramen. There was veggies and a sauce. Ramen didn’t have sauce. He glanced up to Lance who was already digging in. Taking a chance he took a bite.

Keith mentally cursed every god he could think of. Ramen was now ruined for him.

There was just no way Keith would ever be able to make it taste this good. What hell did he put in this? What magic did he work to make these bland noodles taste so good? He was screwed.

Surprisingly it didn’t take long for Keith’s mind to switch from what Lance used, to how he can get Lance to cook for him. Like maybe he could fix his car and Lance could make dinner for them.

Lance quietly continued to eat unaware that he was ruining Keith’s life right now. He was on the opposite end of the table scrolling through his phone. 

Keith push the thoughts of Lance in an apron out of his mind and ate as quickly as he could with out chocking. Focusing on his own phone next to him.

“Your cat doesn’t like me.” Lance broke the silence.

Looking up he saw Red perched on the table locked in a stare down with Lance. Keith had seen this behavior from her before.

“You pissed her off.”

“I haven’t done anything to her!” Lance broke eye contact with Red to glare at Keith.

That was a mistake.

Keith watched as Red launched herself from the table at Lance. She shoved off Lance’s arm, no doubt leaving scratches, then landed lightly on the floor and casually walked away as if nothing happened. Keith was a bit impressed that Lance managed to move his bowl in time and didn’t spill his dinner.

“SEE!” Lance glared after Red as she disappeared around the corner.

“Yeah. You pissed her off.” Keith smiled. It was funny to see her do that. Red takes a while to warm up to people, the only exception to this was Allura. Red loved her from the second she saw her. Keith was so jealous, but he now knows he’s Red’s favorite. She only cuddles with him.

Keith finished and cleared his plate, noticing Lance was done too he reached for the bowl. “Thanks, for dinner.”

Lance shrugged handing the bowl over. “No problem. Rooming with Hunk has its payoffs. I swear that man can create a masterpiece out of anything.”

“It was good.” Keith started the dishes.

“Do you want some help?” Lance followed Keith it the kitchen.

“No, you cooked I’ll clean.”

“Oh, okay. Well … Good night then.” Lance gave a small wave and backed out of the kitchen.

“Good night.”

____

 

A few days passed with Lance hardly seeing Keith. Even when he stopped by the precinct to check his car Keith was no where to be found.

“I’m sure with a bit of elbow grease that will buff right out.” Coran was saying as Lance inspected the large dent in the side of his car. “Nothing a little work can’t fix.”

Lance groaned in frustration. “I think this is beyond anything I could do Coran.”

Pressing charges didn’t do much, but Allura did find a lawyer for him so Lance could go after Lotor for damages. It just takes time and Lance would need his car back before school starts back up in a couple of months.

“I don’t know what to do.” Lance felt defeated.

“Come on now, it’s not as bad as you think. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Coran hit the button that pulled Lance’s car onto the flat bed. “Maybe Keith can help, if you ask nicely?”

Lance tried not to laugh. The two of them had hardly talked. The only text he had gotten from Keith was from this morning.

_K: going to the store, leave a list if you want something_

“I’ll drop it off at Shiro’s and you can decide what to do later.” Coran continued to tie down Lance’s car.

“Sure, Thanks Coran.”

He left the man to do his work and found himself in Allura’s lab.

“Lance, how are you?” Allura’s smile damn near shined. “I was just going to go find you, do you want to go to lunch?”

“Naw, I was gonna pick an extra shift at the café, but I wanted to say hi before leaving.”

“Oh well, then next time. Did Coran get things settled with your car?”

“Yeah, he’s dropping it off.” Lance sighed, “I’m gonna have to work for the rest of my life to get it fixed. Like what the hell, Lotor’s a maniac!”

Allura set her work aside giving Lance all of her attention. “He tricked us all Lance, He even seemed remorseful when Shiro brought him in. But I don’t buy it.”

“This was going to be a wonderful summer with my boyfriend now I’m serving a 3-month sentence with Keith.” Lance wanted to bang his head against a wall.

“How are things with Keith?” Allura smiled resting her chin on her hand.

Lance frowned, “Honestly, I haven’t seen much of him and his cat hates me.”

“Come on Lance I thought you knew how to treat a lady.” Allura laughed. “Red just needs time to get used to you.”

“She is the spawn of Satan. Look at my ARMS!” Lance thrust his arms out to show the scratches up and down them. He was taking a beating from Red catapulting her self off him every chance she got.

“Oh dear.” Allura inspected his arms. “You’ve really angered her. She hasn’t done this since Keith got her.”

“Great. First the mullet hates me and now his cat. I’m out numbered Allura.”

“Lance you’ll be fine and Keith doesn’t hate you.” She turned back to her computer.

“Whatever…Well, I gotta go. Work and all.” Lance gave her one last smile then left.

 

The shift at The Balmara Café was short. Lance was only able to pick up a few extra hours on what would have been his day off, but he needed the money so he would take whatever he could get.

Traveling by bus took a lot longer than he thought it would and the house was quite when he go back late in the evening.

He really hadn’t figured out Keith’s schedule yet but figured he would’ve been home by now. Lance was just about to text Keith when he heard the front door. He got to the kitchen just in time to see Keith drop a few grocery bags on the counter and begin to put things away.

Lance raised a brow at the bags.

“Did you get any of my stuff?” Opening a bag to only find Mac & Cheese and Ramon.

“What?” Keith turned from the fridge.

“The list I left you?”

Keith glared “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“My list Keith. I left a list and a 50 on the counter this morning.” Lance slammed his hand down, “Right here.”

Keith glared at his hand. “There was nothing there when I left.”

“Yes, there was, I left it right here!” 

“There was no fucking list Lance!” Keith slammed the fridge closed.

“Well, what the fuck Keith?! You got some list stealing gremlins around here or something?!”

Keith froze mid reach pulling a cup of noodles out of a bag. “No, but there is a fucking cat.” He slammed the noodles down on the counter and stormed down the hall. “RED!”

Lance followed, “What!?”

“RED, YOU INSUFFERABLE FURBALL WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Lance watched as Red darted under the couch Keith right behind her.

“Where’d she go?”

Lance pointed to the couch amused with the situation. He must have been showing it because Keith glared at him before looking under the couch.

“Yeah laugh it up Lance it’s your money she stole.”

“Shit.” Lance took to the other side of the couch in hopes of cornering Red.

She was too fast and darted into the kitchen. Lance could see the green paper held in her teeth.

Keith followed skidding around the island as Lance took the other side to try to cut her off. Lance grabbed for her as she headed straight for him but missed. Keith crashed into his back and they tumbled to the floor.

“Damnit” Keith shoved off of Lance and scrambled back to his feet.

He cornered Red in the living room but she was fast and escaped between Keith’s feet.

She made for the kitchen again.

Lance, still on the floor, reached out just in time to grab one of her back legs and instantly regretted it. Red squirmed and sank her claws into his hand as she tried to get away.

“OW! KEITH! Get her!”

Keith seemed to take his time in the few steps over to Red and scooped her up by her scruff. He stared her down as she tried to hiss without dropping the bill.

“Give it.” Keith sternly ordered as he pried the bill from Red’s teeth careful not to rip it. Once free he dropped it into Lance’s now scratched up hand.

Lance uncrumpled the bill thankful it was still intact and usable.

“You little asshole.” Keith cooed, voice filled with so much affection that had Lance to looking up at them. Keith was now cradling Red to his chest and scratching her belly as she pawed his face.

It was adorable.

Keith nuzzled her on the head before setting her down and watching her dart off down the hall. The smile on Keith’s face was so tender it caused Lance to pause. He silently wished it would stay.

“Probably should’a told you she likes paper.” Keith extended his hand to Lance, smile gone. “You can’t leave any kind of paper out or she’ll shred it.”

Lance huffed a laugh, taking Keith’s hand as he stood, “Well I guess my list is confetti now then.”

“Yah, your lucky bills are not her favorite.” Keith went back to putting his groceries away. “Next time you leave me a note put in the fridge or just text me.”

“Sure. Guess I’ll go to the store tomorrow, to get real food.” He glanced down at the bag Keith was pulling another bag of noodles out of. God, did he eat anything else?

Keith paused, “Can… Can you make that stuff again… with the noodles?”

Lance smiled at his shyness, he couldn’t help but find it well …cute.

Lance swallowed down his thoughts “Sure thing man, let me see what you got.”

A small smile formed on Keith’s lips as he nodded and continued to put things away.

Lance certainly did not keep looking at Keith as he gathered the things he had used for the dish a few days ago. There was just enough to make dinner for them tonight.

____

 

Keith had cleaned the dishes from dinner and tried not to pay attention to Lance. He was just not used to having another person around let alone Lance. The other tended to grab Keith’s attention not matter what he did. Finishing up his task he then sat at the table with one of Shiro’s Criminal Justice books that he left at the house.

“What you got there?” Lance was curiously watching Keith from the living room.

“A book.” Keith was trying to concentrate on the paragraph he was reading and not the way Lance got up and moved to look over his shoulder.

“That’s a pretty hefty book than what I’ve seen you read. You goin’ to school too?” Lance had leaned into Keith’s space a little more than what he thought was necessary.

“No.”

Lance huffed and continued read over Keith’s shoulder “Criminal Justice huh?”

Keith just nodded and made a show of continuing to read trying to concentrate. If he didn’t engage in the conversation then maybe Lance would give up on his questioning and go away.

But no he wouldn’t because he’s Lance.

“What’s your deal, are you studying to become a cop or something?” Lance huffed crossing his arms over his chest.  Clearly frustrated with Keith’s contribution to the conversation. Or lack thereof.

Keith eyes slid shut with a defeated sigh.

“Oh MY GOD YOU ARE! Keith, my man, THAT IS AWESOME!”

He was thrown off guard by Lance’s outburst, this was not the reaction he had been expecting nor that Lance would guess that so quickly. “W..What?”

“What do you mean WHAT? Keith this is so cool, is Shiro helping you?” Lance eagerly sat in the chair next to Keith. Chin resting in his hand waiting for Keith to answer.

“N..No… Shiro doesn’t know and I’d prefer him not to.” Keith wasn’t sure why he needed to hide this from Shiro, he just didn’t want him meddling.

“WHAT why not? He’s like your in. Like he can get you the job no problem.” Lance’s hands waved dramatically in front of him.

“And forever be the guy that got the job because of his brother? Just ...no.” Keith went back to reading.

The silence that followed was unexpected. Keith glanced back up to find Lance staring at him intently.

“What?”

“I think I get it.” Lance shrugged.

How could he get it when Keith didn’t fully understand why himself?

“I mean..” Lance fidgeted, “no one likes to live in another person’s shadow. Sometimes there are things you just have to do yourself.”

Keith was surprised at how easily Lance put it into words. He had been feeling guilty not telling Shiro his plan to apply to the precinct, but this is something Keith has to do for himself.    

“Thanks, Lance.”

Lance stood, “No problem, and I won’t mention it to anyone.” Lance walked back into the living room.

Keith went back to his book trying to absorb as much as possible so that when the time does come he will be ready for the interview.

____

 

Lance did not spend half the night picturing Keith in a police uniform. He didn’t.

He most certainly didn’t picture him on a police motorcycle with the helmet and aviator sunglasses. He just didn’t.

He was concentrating really hard on mapping out the fastest route to the café in the morning. After spending an abnormally long time staring at the maps online only half seeing them he thinks he found the best route. He could take the bus and the tram to get to the café. If he got ahold of a bicycle then that should help cut the time down, but then he would be sweaty for work and wasn’t sure that would go over well.

The next morning he certainly didn’t have to push the thought of Keith with cuffs out of his mind as he got into the shower. He didn’t.

The shower did little to help him wake up. He was still drying his hair as he padded into the kitchen and paused as he saw the familiar sight of Red perched on the counter.

This was an ongoing battle with her as she pounced him every morning after he made coffee, leaving behind new scratches on his already abused shoulders and arms.

But this morning Lance was in luck.

Keith was already beginning the process of making coffee.

Lance eyed Red as she watched Keith with a patience that she never showed with Lance. Keith finished filling the coffee maker with grounds and water before starting it up. This was normally the point when Red would attack but she didn’t. She didn’t make a single move to pounce Keith.

Lance was about to scare Red off out of irritation when Keith pulled an extra coffee filter out of the bag, crumpled it up and tossed it on the counter next to Red. Red jumped excitedly at her new prize and swatted it around the counter before it fell off and she chased after it.

Lance just stood in shock watching Red play on the floor with the crumpled coffee filter.

“Good morning.” Keith finally notice Lance standing in the doorway.

“How did you do that? She didn’t pounce you?” Lance exclaimed.

“What?”

“Red, she didn’t attack you!”

“No,” Keith shrugged then paused while putting the coffee filters away. “Wait has she been doing it every time you make coffee?”

“YES! And ALL day ANY chance she gets!” Lance huffed and yanked the cabinet with the coffee cups open. He pulled out two cups for them, one red that he noticed Keith used the most, and a blue one he had found in the back of the cabinet.

Keith giggled. Strait up giggled and Lance thought his heart might have stopped.

“The filters are paper,” He giggled again, “Red gets one every morning as kind of a prize. No wonder she’s been so mean to you.”

Lance arched a brow at Keith, “So this goes with the whole paper thing that you forgot to tell me to begin with.”

 “Yeah, sorry I shoulda’ told you.” Keith poured coffee for both of them.

“So like what happens with it now, is she going to shred it and leave it on my pillow?” Lance glared into the living room where Red had dissapperred.

“No, she hides them under my bed, I sweep them out on the weekend. They make good kindling for the fire pit out back.” Keith shrugged.

“You have a fire pit! Man I’m so gonna get marshmallows!” Lance squealed, he hadn’t had roasted marshmallows in years.

“Shiro keeps a bag in the pantry for that. So maybe we can.” Keith brushed by Lance leaving him in the kitchen.

 

Lance had made it halfway to the café before he realized what a horrible mistake he had made. Heading to the bus stop when he heard the last voice on Earth that he wanted to hear.

“Lance, I’ve tried to call you.” Lotor was standing in front of him all fake, sad smiles. “I’ve missed you.”

“Wouldn’t know, I blocked your number.” Lance was kicking himself for not realizing that this was the street that had all the high-end clothing stores. One of which is where Lotor currently worked as a manager.

Lotor pouted, “Now is that anyway to treat your boyfriend?”

He was trying to block Lance’s way on the sidewalk. Preventing Lance from getting to the bus stop where he needed to catch the next ride in order to make it the café in time.

“Lotor I currently don’t have a boyfriend.” Lance tried to push past but Lotor sidestepped blocking him again.

“Lance please, we had such a beautiful thing why would you throw that all away?” Lotor tried grabbing onto Lance’s hand but he managed to step back out of reach. 

“You threw it away months ago when you started trying to control me.” Lance spat. “I will not let you manipulate me anymore.” Lance pushed past with enough force to send Lotor stepping back.

“Look at you, running from your problems again.” Lotor retorted. “No one else is going to put up with you like I do. We were meant to be together.”

Lance didn’t respond, didn’t look back at whatever con Lotor was trying to pull on him this time. He made it to the bus stop just as the bus arrived and waisted no time climbing in.

From his seat he could see Lotor watching from the sidewalk but making no move to chase after him. He saw no remorse or sadness, only a calculating gaze. The same gaze Lance saw before his tires were slashed.

 

Shay was hovering. Lance had explained what had happened on his way in and now Shay was being a protective momma bear as well as the manager of the Balmara Cafe. She and Hunk had been dating for about a year and it seems that his protective nature had rubbed off a bit on her.

“I’m fine.” Lance said for what was probably the millionth time during his shift.

“You are not walking all the way to Shiro’s house Lance.” Shay said again as he hung up his apron.

“I’ll find another route to the house.” Lance tried to shrug it off in hopes Shay would relax a little bit. “It’s really not that far.”

“No Lance, you can call someone. There has to be someone you can call.” She said.

Lance made a show of pulling out his phone, “Okay, I’ll text Allura, I’m sure she can pick me up.”

L: Hello beautiful

He didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

_A: Yes?_

L: you know you are a goddess

_A: What do you want Lance?_

L: Shay won’t let me walk home

L: can I get a ride

_A: I’m all tied up right now. Let me see if I can send Shiro._

No no no no no Lance did not want Shiro, he was still embarrassed about being picked up that night a cry mess. He did not want the pitying looks from the other man let alone a ride home in his squad car.

L: NO you don’t have to send Shiro Im sure hes busy

L: Allura Im good I’ll get a ride

L: ALLURA!!!!!!

_A: Shiro is busy._

OH thank God.

_A: Keith’s on his way._

Damnit.

L: its not a big deal Im fine now

_A: He said he would be there in a few._

L: no really Allura Im fine now tell him not to come

_A: I’ll call you when I’m off tonight and let me know if the helmet fits._

L: What?!

L: ALLura!

 

Lance buried his face into his hands. He did not want to have to rely on others for rides right now especially from Keith.

“Did you find a ride home?” Shay was asking from the front counter.

Lance let his head drop back and hit the wall he was leaning against. “Yeah.”

“Good, Hunk would be so mad if I let you take the bus after what happened.” Shay smiled. “Gotta keep an eye on you when he’s gone.”

Hunk and Shay had been dating since last fall. In Lance’s mind they were the perfect couple, like high school sweethearts.

“I respect that,” Lance smiled, “But I’m fine, really.”

She didn’t look like she believed him.

Lance found a spot out front to sit, thankful that it was the slow part of the day and only a few people trickled in and out while he waited.

Lance was checking the bus schedules again trying to map out a different route when the he heard the chime of the door followed by Shay’s excited voice.

“Keith! I haven’t seen you in forever, how are you?” She ran around the counter and gave Keith a quit hug.

Keith returned the hug with one arm as he was holding two helmets in his other hand.

Lance swallowed. That’s right Keith rode a bike everywhere. That’s what Allura meant.

“I’m good Shay.” Keith looked up and caught Lance’s eyes, “Lance, you ready?”

“Oh _your_ Lance’s ride? That’s good.” Shay released Keith and glanced at Lance. “I was gonna worry all day after what happened.”

Keith frowned, “What happened?”

Lance had already gathered his things and was sliding out of the booth he was in.

“Nothing to worry about mullet.” Lance tried to brush it off.

“He had a run in with Lotor.” Shay supplied.

Keith’s face actually looked concerned.

“You okay?” He stepped closer to Lance, his eyes never leaving Lance’s face.

Lance hoped Keith couldn’t see how he really felt about the encounter Lotor.  Like screaming at the top of his lungs then curling into a ball on the floor.

“Fine. Don’t worry about it.” Lance glanced down at the helmets. “Is one of those for me?”

Keith seemed to study him a moment longer before handing him the blue helmet, keeping the red one for himself.

“Have you been on a bike before?” Keith watched Lance place the helmet on his head. Lance knocked on the hard side and smiled back at Keith. He was pleased to see him relax slightly.

“See ya tomorrow Shay.” Lance waved to her and started towards the door.

“See you later. Both of you be careful!” Shay gave them both a quick hug and returned to the counter.

“Will do.” Keith followed Lance out the door.

Lance headed to the only bike parked out front. It was so obviously Keith’s.

Shiny red paint, with black trim, it just looked like it could go 0 to 60 without even trying.

Lance started fumbling with the straps of his helmet.

“So I take it that you haven’t ridden a bike before.” Keith watched Lance struggle.

“Well, no, but it can’t be too hard. Like riding a bicycle.” Lance was still trying to get the strap hooked on.

“Hold still.” Keith stepped in close pushing Lance’s hands away. He froze as Keith expertly adjusted the straps and snapped them together then wiggled the helmet to test it’s fit. Keith adjusted the strap one more time before stepping back and placing his own helmet on.

“You’ll need to hold on tight and lean with me. Got it?” Keith swung a leg over and straddled the bike.

“Got it.” Lance regained his composure and swung his leg over sitting behind Keith. He grabbed on to the sides of Keith’s jacket.

“Your gonna have to hold on tighter if you want to stay on.” Keith turned the key and the engine roared to life.

Lance repositioned his hands on Keith’s waist but it wasn’t enough. With a huff Keith grabbed both of Lance’s hands pulling him forward until Lance was flush against Keith’s back and wrapped his arms around Keith’s stomach.

Satisfied with Lance’s new position he took off down the street, Lance holding on for dear life.

____

 

Keith may have been driving a bit faster than he normal. He was enjoying the feeling of Lance’s arms around him and how they tighten an a quick turn. The down side was that because he was driving faster the ride ended a bit sooner than Keith wanted.

Keith pulled his bike into the garage, right next to where Lance’s car now sat.

Keith smiled a little when Lance’s grip did not loosen until the sound of the engine died. He felt Lance let out a breath of relief before getting off the bike.

“Thanks, for the ride.” Lance fumbled a bit with the straps but was able to release the helmet from his head without Keith’s help. Much to Keith’s disappointment.

“No problem.” Keith took his helmet off and shook out his hair. He turned to find Lance staring at him. “If you need me to pick you up again I can. Just ask.”

“Naw, I’m already invading your space I’m not going to ask you to be my uber too.” He held out the blue helmet to Keith.

Keith made no move to take it. “Keep it. I…I’m serous, just let me know and I’ll pick you up.”

Lance’s gaze fell to the car behind Keith and he swore he could see Lance’s façade break a little. His eyes darkened and a look of frustration glanced over his face but it was gone within a second.

Lance held the helmet to his chest. “Thanks.”

 

Lance was scarce the rest of the day, Keith could hear him talking to what he assumed was Allura on the phone from behind the closed door of Shiro’s room. His muffled voice drifted down the hallway every now and then when Lance got a little too load. Keith did his best to respect his privacy and stayed in the living room. He curled up on the couch and found a good documentary to keep him occupied.

____

 

The talk with Allura was what Lance needed to set his head strait. She had ended the conversation with the promise of drinks on the weekend. Lance just had to make it through one more day of work, though she insisted that Lance get a ride and avoid the buses for now.

This had Lance finally emerging from his room since he and Keith go home a few hours ago. He would swallow his pride and ask Keith for a ride to work tomorrow. He did tell Lance to ask if he needed to, he  insisted it.

The TV was on in the living room playing some documentary on the Jersey Devil. He snorted at Keith’s choice of entertainment.

Lance could see his mullet over the back of the couch. “Hey man, I…”

His words died as he rounded the front of the couch and found Keith fast asleep. His knees were tucked up under him, side propped on a pillow and Red curled up in his lap.

Lance melted.

He couldn’t disturb someone looking so peaceful, besides he didn’t want to know what Red would do if he woke her.

Padding back to his room he grabbed an extra blanket Shiro had said was in his closet. Making it back to the living room he managed throw it over Keith with out waking him. Red however glared at him with one eye open but made no other move. He turned the volume down a bit on the TV but left it on before returning to his room for the night. He could talk to Keith in the morning.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Not everything needs to be red Keith, I was thinking of something blue.” Lance turned back to Sherry, “Do you have anything blue?”   
> Her smile had turned to amusement. “Aren’t you two the cutest. I’m sure we can find something that you both agree on. If you follow me I’ll show you a blue one just over here.” She began to lead them down the aisle of cars.   
> “What was that?” Lance asked Keith as he fell into step with him.   
> “What? I like the red one.”  
> “No… No. Calling us cute.”   
> Keith just shrugged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not sure what I'm doing, but hey no one really does. I'm glad everyone likes this so far and I hope to have the 3rd chapter up by the end of July.

Lance was counting today as a good day.

First, he remembered to give Red a coffee filter to play with. Red was skeptical of it at first but soon snatched it up and ran off to wherever her favorite place in the house was. This resulted to no sneak attacks from her when he threw in a load of laundry before he had to leave.

Second, after stammering a bit he managed to ask Keith for a ride to work. Not only did Keith agree but Lance got a shy smile from him with his reply. Lance couldn’t ask for more.

And third, Allura picked him up after his shift for drinks. Finally he was going to be able to relax.

After a stop by Allura’s to change and get their club looks on they headed out to Lance’s personal favorite place.

Club Voltron’s dance floor was already filling up when they got there. The Lights pulsed blue, red, green, yellow, purple, bathing the dancers in a kaleidoscope of colors, drawing Lance out to meet them. He downed his first drink and lost himself to the beats of the music, swaying with the people around him but not really seeing them.

Out here nothing mattered. Time started to slip away from him.  

He felt the light touch on his back before an arm was wrapping around him. Allura pulled him in and whispered into his ear. “Mary’s got a lamb and you need a drink.”

Lance looped his arm around her waist in return as she guided them through the dance floor. Lance scanned the people around them but found no one he recognized, thankful that there was not a repeat of earlier this week.

See, Mary was a code they used. If one or the other was being followed around or in an uncomfortable situation, then ‘ _Mary’s got a lamb’_. It was as much as a question as a statement. By placing his arm around her he was acknowledging her statement and _giving_ or _asking_ for help. He could not tell which one of them was ‘Mary’ but it didn’t matter as he was not looking to hook up tonight. If he wanted that he would’ve asked for his _lamb_.

Allura took lead him downstairs where it was private and you didn’t have to yell over the music o hold a conversation. The lower bar didn’t have the pulsing light but instead a soft glow illuminating each table around the floor.

“Who’s Mary?” Lance asked after they ordered their drinks from the bar.

“You.” Allura glanced around but looked relaxed enough that Lance didn’t worry. “Some girl was following you around trying to get your attention.”

Lance nodded as their drinks were handed to them and Allura found a spot to sit. He’s not surprised he didn’t notice someone pining for his attention. He got lost in dancing and just wasn’t into meeting people tonight.

“Not interested.” Lance sipped his wonderful blue AMF, letting the alcohol hum in his body.

“Figured as much.” Allura sipped her orange drink, Lance wasn’t sure what it was but it was not as strong as his. Allura liked her drinks on the lighter side. She liked to keep a level head.

“You are handling this split very well I might add.” Allura stated. “Much better than last time.”

“This was different. Honestly I was done months ago.”

“Then why move in? Lance, if it wasn’t working then why stay?”

Lance studied his drink, he didn’t really have a good answer.

“I already made plans to stay for the summer.” It was a lame excuse. “Didn’t have anywhere to go and no time or money to find a place of my own. Thought I could try to make it work until the end of the summer. But I only lasted two weeks.”

“You should’ve told me sooner, I could’ve helped.” Allura took his hand and squeezed it, reassuring him. “You can tell me anything, I’m your friend.”

“Allura you’re the best friend anyone could ask for, but I didn’t know what was going on. Lotor, he would be sweet one minute and harsh the next.” Lance took a deep breath then let it out slowly. “He had a way of making you feel like you were on top of the world, but he was the one who put you there. Moving in with him was a mistake as he took every chance to tell me how worthless I was and that he was the only one who could love me.”

“Oh, Lance…”

“I know it’s not true but the words still hurt.” He downed the rest of his drink. “Even if I am worthless I don’t need someone to rub my face in it every day.”   

“First off,” Allura raised a finger, “you are not _worthless_ , you’re way too good for that idiot.”

“Aw, thanks…”

“Second, I’m gonna _kill him_ …”

“Allura no.”

“Allura Yes! If there is any benefit to dating a detective it’s that I could get away with murder.”

“NO. No Murder!”

Allura pouted, “You take all my fun.”

“You scare me sometimes.” Lance flagged a waitress down for another drink.

A devilish smile spread across Allura’s face. “I know but let’s move on from the unpleasantries. How is are things at the house?”

“Fine, fine, I wasn’t ambushed today.” Lance smiled at the thought of winning over Red.

“That is good, I told you Red would warm up to you.”

“Well, if the mullet had told me all his cat’s quirks I wouldn’t have been mulled.” Lance held up his arms to show the healing scratches.

“Oh well, she’ll love you now. How is Keith?”

“He… He is good.” Lance shrugged, “Everything seems fine when I see him… He likes my noodles.”

“Noodles?”

“Ramon with extra stuff that Hunk taught me how... Keith loves it.” Lance could feel the last drink hitting him. His thoughts were fuzzy.

Allura was handling her drink better. “Oh, so he likes your cooking.”

“Yeah and he gave me a ride… to work.”

Allura laughed at what Lance wasn’t sure. “I had a feeling you would need that helmet.”

“Yes. I need it. Did need it.” He swirled the ice in his now empty glass. “He has a cute smile.”

“ _Really…??”_ Allura looked like she would jump from her chair.

“Yeah but I don’t see it much… Red. He looks at Red that way.” Lance leaned back in his chair. “I wish he would look at me that way.”

“I thinks it’s possible,” Allura had her phone out. “I’m texting Shiro, I think we have reached our limits for tonight.”

“Oh come on, I’m good for another drink.” Lance stood then swayed on his feet before sitting right back down. “Yeah it’s a good time to call Shiro.”

Lance still managed to sneak another shot in before Shiro arrived.

____

 

Keith was nodding off on the couch with the TV on when the front door was flung open. Shiro barged his way in, arm supporting Lance as he maneuvered him over to the couch.

“You know knocking is a thing.” Keith scolded rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“My hands are full. Someone had a little too much fun tonight.” Shiro sat Lance on the couch next to Keith. Lance slumped over to the side landing in Keith’s lap.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Keith watched Shiro head for the door.

“Give him some water and put him to bed.” Shiro grinned, “See ya.”

“SHIRO??!!”

The sound of the door shutting caused Lance to stir in Keith’s lap. His eyes slowly opened, “Well, hello beau…ful.”

Lance’s words were horribly slurred but Keith could still feel his face heating up.

“Uh… what?” Keith froze as Lance’s hand reached up and brushed his hair to the side.

“OH MY GOD… it’s sooo soft!” Lance was suddenly sitting up, swaying too much with the motion and pinning Keith back against the couch.

Keith grabbed Lance’s waist to steady him when Lance’s other hand found its way into Keith’s hair. He froze again as Lance started to comb his hair back with his fingers.

“How is your hair… so… so soft? Your shampoo is shit. Just…How?”

“It’s not shit.”

“is tooooo…” Lance sang as he continued to card his fingers through Keith’s hair hitting all the sweet spots that Keith didn’t even know he had.

He trying to get normal brain function back but damn, Lance’s fingers felt so good. His nails scraped across his scalp and Keith had to hold back a moan as he melted in Lance’s touch.

“So pretty… so soft.” Lance hummed.

Keith tried again to get a hold of himself. Lance was currently drunk. Drunk enough that he was sitting in Keith’s lap, stroking his hair, and calling him pretty. 

“Lance…” Keith pulled Lance’s fingers from his hair only to have them slip through his grip and go right back to where they were.

Lance hummed again right next to Keith’s ear sending shivers down his spine.

“Lance can you… can you stop?” Lance released his hair and flopped back down laying across Keith’s lap. He crossed his arms over his chest and pouted as he glared up at Keith.

“Why?” Lance whined.

His thoughts were going to mush with the way Lance was looking at him. His glare was fading as his eyes drifted closed. The pout was smoothing out leaving his face relaxed and soft.

“You need to get to bed.”

“humm comfy here…” Lance mumbled the words out and wiggled his body as if to settle more onto Keith’s lap. As much as Keith wanted to have Lance this close this was not the time. This was not what normal Lance would do. There is even a good chance that Lance won’t even remember anything by the morning and freak out if he woke up cuddling with Keith.

Lance’s breath had evened while Keith was lost in his head. “Damnit.”

He shook Lance’s shoulders, the movement causing Lance’s arms to fall to the side. “NO… No don’t fall asleep….  Lance?”

Lance only mumbled.

Keith sighed and accepted defeat.

Scooping Lance into his arms he carried him to bed. He removed Lance’s shoes and tucked him in, leaving a water bottle and pain killers on the nightstand.

Keith tried not to think about those fingers while he drifted off to sleep. He tried and failed.

____

 

Lance blinked at the morning sun coming through the window assaulting his eyes. His head throbbed with the movement to turn his head.

He groaned into a pillow. What the fuck was he thinking having that extra shot before leaving.

He cracked his eyes open again to spy a bottle on the nightstand and downed half the water thankful to whomever put it there.

His body ached as he moved to get up. This was going to be a long day, he still had to work later.

He took a couple pain meds once he spotted them and rubbed his face as the rest of the room came into focus. Eyes landing on a clock on the far wall.

1:07

_1:07_

“OH SHIT!” Lance’s brain finally caught up and he bolted out of bed. He had a 2PM shift and it was a 45 min bus ride.

“KEITH!” ignoring his throbbing head he prayed the other was home and he could get a ride. “Are home…BUDDY!”

He paused halfway into the kitchen hopping for a response.

There may as well been crickets chirping.

Lance cursed again as he flung the door to the garage open to find Keith’s bike gone.

He had to stop and think. His brain was too slow from the drinks last night and was rebelling against him with throbbing pain every time he moved too quickly.

1:10 PM. He could make it.

He was still in the clothes from the club so he was decent. Quickly he brushed his teeth as riffled through the dryer for his work clothes, thankful to find the black shirt and pants right in the front. Tossing them in a bag as he rinsed his mouth he ran from the house to the bus stop around the corner still trying to get his shoes on.

The bus ride was nothing but a throbbing headache.

The jog to the café was no better.

Shay nodded in his direction as he strolled in and headed straight to the bathroom. He still had a few minutes to change. He wasn’t late yet.

He cleaned himself up the best he could and got changed. He still felt horrible. His head was still throbbing, his body ached with every move, even his shirt felt too tight after he struggled to get into it. Fuck hangovers.

He pulled on his pants and cursed himself for grabbing jeans instead of his work slacks.

Lance froze with the jeans pulled halfway up his thighs.

He didn’t own black jeans.

“NOOOOOOooooooo.” The universe hated him.

Keith must have changed out the laundry with his while Lance was at the bar last night. He pulled the jeans over his hips thanking the universe that they fit and that Keith was the similar in size to him. He finished getting dressed and left the stall to assess his pathetic state in the mirror.

The jeans were skinny jeans and hugged his long legs before coming up short a couple of inches from his ankles.

The shirt was tight, too tight. Only egoistical jerks wear shirts this tight. Where Keith can pull off the slightly snug shirt, it stretches too much over Lance’s body. The black looks alright as usual but his shoulders look too big and it rides up around his waist. He tries tucking it in to keep it down.

Sighing he accepts his fate. He can’t make Shay wait any longer, it will have to do. He tosses his bag into the office not caring where it lands and hopes that his apron will hide his mistakes.

The afternoon rush was in full swing and he is taking orders before he has his apron tied on properly.

Falling into the swing of things. Shay and him made a killer team getting the orders filled just as fast as they came in. Everyone seemed to be friendly today and he swears he got a few second glances from a couple of cute girls that came in. The tip jar seemed to be filling up faster than normal as well. If only his headache would let up.

Finally there was a lull in customers and the café calmed down enough that he could hold a real conversation with Shay.

“We are _killing it_ today, Shay!” Lance held up the tip jar that was now half full. “Look we’re already halfway!”

“Don’t move!” Lance froze in place as Shay smiled and pulled out her phone. “Now smile.”

Lance rolled with it and gave his best smile thought he’s sure he still looks like shit.

“It’s perfect.” Shay said smiling at her phone.

“Aren’t I always.” Lance set the jar back down and began cleaning the expresso machine. He heard Shay take another picture. “Dare I ask why you are just now finding out how photogenic I am.”

“Only if I get to ask what has brought on this change in style?” Shay turned the phone to him so he could see the pictures she just took.

“Well I’m sporting a Keith look today courtesy of hungover Lance.” Shay laughed as he spun around. “I grabbed his clothes instead of mine.”

“Well, it’s a good look for you if the tip jar is anything to go by and those college girls were eyeing you the whole time they were here.” Shay smiled. “I may have an idea for advertising, if you have no problem with me using your pictures.”

“No problem, do what you want.” He shrugged, “But I bet I could do better once I get more sleep.” He suppressed a yawn. 

“Did you have fun last night?” Shay asked as she began cleaning the other side of the counter.

“From what I remember, yes. I kinda just kicked it with Allura and got my chill on.”

“That’s good with everything going on lately.”

“Just taking time to relax.” Lance began humming as he cleaned until his head began to throb again and Shay gave him a muffin before kicking him out to break.

The rest of the shift seemed to take forever as he was still fighting the hungover by closing time. Shay was kind enough to give him a ride home. Though there may have been some whining and begging on his part.

With heavy steps he entered the house and headed to the kitchen for a bottle of water.

Keith was leaning against the counter, scrolling through his phone as the microwave sounded behind him. He raised an eyebrow at Lance as he chugged the water down.

“What’s with you?” He asked looking back at his phone once Lance was finished. Lance could swear his face looked a bit more red than normal.

“Bad Day, like extra bad. Open the Hell gates and let me in kind of bad.” Lance chucks his now empty bottle into the recycle bin.

“yeah?” Keith side eyes Lance but never meets Lance’s eyes.

The microwave beeps and Keith turns to pull out his cup of noodles.

“Keith! What the hell man we talked about this, that is not real food.”

“HEY” Keith yells as Lance takes the noodles from him while trying not to burn himself.

“I will make you something better, something worth eating.” Lance pulls open the fridge and starts to gather the veggies and chicken.

Keith sits himself behind the island and watches with a pout as Lance begins cook. It grows quiet in the kitchen, with only the sound of Lance frying the veggies and chicken.

“So,” Keith starts.

“Huh” Lance is still cooking over the stove and doesn’t turn to look at him.

Keith sounds hesitant as he continues. “Is there… is there a reason your wearing my shirt and… and my jeans?”

Lance freezes before slowly turning to look at Keith. “Yeah sorry about that. I grabbed clothes from the dryer thinking it was my work stuff. Didn’t realize it wasn’t until I put it on at work. Sorry.”

Lance quickly added the noodles to the pan before looking back at Keith again hoping the other wasn’t mad.

Keith was watching Lance as he added some sauce to the dish he was creating.

“Is that ok? I don’t think I stretched them out. I’ll get you some new ones if you want.” Lance pulled two plates from the cabinet.

“NO, no it’s fine.” Keith’s cheeks turning a bit pink. “They look good.”

“Really?” Lance dished the dinner for them. “I feel like a jerk with a big head or something.” He says shoving a plate in front of Keith before sitting down next to him.

“So, like normal than.”

“HEY!”

Keith laughs then takes a bite of his food. “What the hell?”

“What,” Lance looks over with concern. “Is it bad? Did I put too much sauce?”

“No, it’s good.” Keith takes another bite. “How the hell did you make this from a cup of noodle? How do you keep making these noodles taste so good?” He says around another bite.

“It’s one of my many talents.” Lance shrugs.

“Thanks for dinner.”

Lance doesn’t miss Keith’s small smile. “Thanks for not getting mad about the clothes.”

____

 

Keith was trying not to stare at Lance but god his arms. Like who knew Lance was hiding those Lean muscles under his shirts. And those _legs_. Keith didn’t consider himself a leg man until now. He can’t even be mad that Lance took his clothes. Even the idea of Lance wearing his clothes was doing something to him. Not to mention how great his ass looked in those jeans.

It was hard not to stare as Lance cleared the plates. His broad shoulders and small waist looked so good in black.

Keith is too busy thinking about how to get Lance in his clothes more often to hear what he was asking him.

“Hello?” Lance is waving an arm in front of Keith. A well... toned... arm.

“What?” Keith finally looks up to see those beautiful blues looking at him.

“You ok buddy, or are you going into a food coma?” Lance laughs. “I was asking if you had plans for the 4th of July? You know fireworks and stuff.”

“Oh… I just watch them from the backyard.”

“Really! You can see them from there? Oh, can we roast marshmallows too?” Lance was excitingly looking out the back door as if the fireworks would start now and not in a couple of days.

“Sure, I don’t see why not.”

“Cool, cool.” He paused and turned back to Keith, “Can I ask you a favor?”

“That depends on the favor.”

“I need some help with my car. I think it’s too much to fix and I think I should just scrap it and find something else.” Lance nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “Can you help me find something that like… runs?”

“You want me to go car shopping with you?”

“Yes.”

“Ok.”

____

 

The next morning Lance felt so much better. With the help of Coran and Keith, he was able to get his old car sold to a scrap yard and walk away with a decent amount of cash for it. Pulled with the rest of his savings he thinks he’s got enough to get him something that runs.

What he wasn’t sure about was the place that Keith brought him to find another ride.

“What is this place?”

“A car lot.” Keith pointed to the neon sign that looked to be half broken.

“It looks like another junk yard.”

“Do you want my help or not?” Keith crossed his arms glaring at Lance.

“Yes, but I have standards Keith.” Lance glared right back.

“You said to help you find something that runs, well _here_ we are.”

“Don’t make me regret this.” Lance followed Keith as he began to look around and the pathetic selection the lot had.

“Can I help you find anything?”

Lance and Keith both jumped as an older sales lady seemed to pop up out of nowhere. She stood smiling expectantly at both of them in her light pink pant suit.

“Yeah, I’m in the market for a new car.” Lance put on his best smile. “Preferably something that runs and has wheels.”

“Well, I’m Sherry, and I assure you everything here runs beautify and has the appropriate number of wheels.” Her white smile matched the pearls around her neck.

“How much is the red one?” Keith bluntly asked over Lance’s shoulder.

“What?” Lance turned to Keith “Who said anything about the red one?”

“It looks good.” Keith shrugged.

“Not everything needs to be red Keith, I was thinking of something blue.” Lance turned back to Sherry, “Do you have anything blue?”

Her smile had turned to amusement. “Aren’t you two the cutest. I’m sure we can find something that you both agree on. If you follow me I’ll show you a blue one just over here.” She began to lead them down the aisle of cars.

“What was that?” Lance asked Keith as he fell into step with him.

“What? I like the red one.”

“No… No. Calling _us_ cute.”

Keith just shrugged.

“Here we have a 1994 Ford Mustang.” Sherry smiled at them.

Lance was not impressed. The paint was pealing and he could see how thorn up the seats were from a few feet away.

“How much?” Keith asked from his side.

“Normally they go for around $6000 but you two remind me so much of my son and his partner that I think I can let it go for $5700.” Sherry grinned proudly at them.

Lance smiled back catching on to her game.

Keith, who was walking around the car inspecting every little thing and didn’t seem to.

“Oh well,” Lance put on his best charm, “It is blue like I want but it still has to pass my babe’s approval. Isn’t that right _Babe_?” Lance glanced over to Keith in time to catch him slowly raise his head from the other side of the car, brows pinched in confusion, a light pink dusting his cheeks. 

“Oh my son is the same way,” Sherry gushed, “He won’t let poor Michael buy anything unless he’s inspected it.”

Keith glanced from Lance to Sherry as they both grinned at him.

“Can… I… see… the engine?” Keith asked slowly as if he was afraid to startle them.

“Oh of course. Just let me get the keys.” Sherry all but pranced over to a small building with cloudy windows in the front.

Keith watched her go before snapping his head back over to glare at Lance.

“What?! She thinks we’re a couple and I have no problem playing along if it gets me a cheaper price. Don’t ruin it!” Lance whispered loud enough for Keith to hear.

“Do you even want this car?” Keith frowned as he looked in the window again.

“I don’t care as long as it drives, but I’ve barely got 4 grand and she wants $5700 for it.” Lance sighed.

Keith glanced at him then to the car. It seemed like he was processing something before he shrugged, “OK.”

“OK what?”

“I’ll play along.” Keith continued to inspect the car, going as far as to crawl on the ground to get a good look underneath it.

Sherry soon returned with the keys in hand. “Here we are.”

She unlocked the car and Lance climbed inside to pop the hood for Keith. Lance looked over the interior as Keith went to work inspecting the engine.

Thankfully the car didn’t smell bad, but it was a sore sight. There were stains that Lance didn’t want to know how or what they were. The glove box didn’t seem to latch as he tried and failed to close it several times. One hard slam seemed to do the trick.

The radio had a tape deck and no aux port. The AC didn’t work, nor did the heater. It had 274,873 miles on it.

Sherry stood off to the side as they inspected it, smiling to herself or to them, Lance wasn’t sure.

He slid out of the car and walked up next to Keith.

“What is the verdict Babe?” He asked leaning into Keith’s side and ignoring the way the other stiffen up at his touch.

“Well, it’ll run, for now anyways but your going to have to replace half this car probably within the next year.” Keith wiped what looked like grease on his hands on to his pants. He kept his voice down just for them. “I can fix it, but the parts won’t be cheap.”

Lance couldn’t help but smile at the way Keith was looking at him, it was so genuine. Keith was genuinely offering to help him.

“Lance do you want this car?” Keith whispered.

Looking around at his other options Lance didn’t see anything any better.

“Sure.”

“Ok.” Keith stood up straight and shut the hood. He wiped his hands on his pants again before surprising Lance by taking his hand.

Keith lead Lance over to where Sherry was smiling at them. “Can we take it for a test drive?”

____

 

Keith tried not to cringe as Lance started the car. It sounded horrible. 

“Lance I can’t say that that sound was good.”

“I agree babe, it sounds like shit.” Lance smiled and waved to Sherry as they pulled out of the dealership.

“She’s not here you don’t have to call me that.”

“Yeah but you keep getting redder and redder every time I do.” Lance grinned at him as he drove.

Keith could feel his face heating up more and more now that Lance pointed it out.

“You are not used to it are you, haven’t you had a boyfriend that called you nicknames before?” Lance asked.

“Not really.” Keith admitted.

“What? You never got sappy with a boyfriend?” Lance teased.

“I’ve never really had a boyfriend.”

Lance stopped the car at a stop sign. When he didn’t continue when it was clear Keith turned to find Lance staring at him. “What?”

“You’ve never had a boyfriend?” Lance was being usually serious.

“That is what I just said.”

“You’ve never dated anyone?”

“I’ve dated guys Lance just not long enough to call them my boyfriend.”

Lance just stared at him a moment longer before continuing through the stop.

The car filled with awkward silence.

“Did you put me to bed the other night?” Lance blurted out. “When I was drunk.”

“You mean the night you had your fingers in my hair!”

“I HAD MY FINGERS IN YOUR HAIR?!”

Keith could feel his face heating up, he was sure he was a tomato right now.

“KEITH WHAT ELSE DID I DO?”

His only relief was that Lance looked to be turning red as well.

“KEEEEIITH.” Lance pulled the car off the road to a stop and rubbed his face.

“You passed out in my lap after asking how my hair was so soft when my shampoo was shit.”

Lance looked out the driver side window as Keith looked out the passenger side.

“How is your hair so soft?”

“LANCE.”

“WHAT?”

“WHAT THE FUCK?”

“I HAD A POINT BUT NOW I FORGOT IT!” Lance huffed. “It’s your shitty shampoo’s fault.”

Keith groaned and dropped his head onto the dashboard in front of him.

The glovebox fell open.

 “God damnit.” Lance reached over and slammed it shut again. Keith could feel it through the dashboard.

“Ok… just, okokokokok. I had a point.” Lance was pulling back onto the road. “Keith you give me rides, you took care of drunk me, your helping me buy a car and offered to fix it. I’m just having a hard time understanding how you’ve never had a boyfriend even if you have no cooking abilities.”

Keith just froze trying to process Lance’s words. What was he trying to say?

Too soon they could see the approaching dealer ship.

“Alright.” Lance visibly took a deep breath. “Pretend boyfriend, let’s get this piece of junk down into my price range.”

_____

 

Lance got out of the car first and greeted Sherry. He ignored the fact that Keith was taking longer than normal to join him.

“Did you enjoy your ride?” Sherry was all smiles.

“Well, it runs as promised.” Lance smiled and glanced back to see Keith finally getting out of the car.

He didn’t look happy. Lance worried that he may have crossed a line on their little drive.

Keith stocked over and surprised Lance by wrapping an arm around the small of his back and pulled him into his side.

“Sherry it seems my boyfriend likes the car, but it needs work and I’m not willing to let him pay $5700 for it.” Keith smiled but it was the most intimidating thing Lance had seen.

“Why don’t we go in and have a seat while we discuss price?” Sherry was still all smiles as she led them to the small building and into the offices. Keith’s arm was wrapped around Lance the whole way and Lance was trying not to enjoy it.

Keith only released him when they were sat in front mahogany desk, that much like the cars, had seen better days. He kept Lance’s hand though and laced there fingers together.

Again Keith and Sherry discussed price, she momentarily left them to get a mechanic out of the shop to back up whatever argument she had.

“Is it going well?” Lance honestly was having a hard time keeping up but he was impressed with Keith’s bargaining skills.

“I’ve almost got her down to $3700.” Keith whispered but changed no emotion on his face. “They are going to try to test my knowledge on the mechanics of the car now since my claims of repairs is what I’m using to drive the price down.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing I brought a mechanic.” Lance squeezed his hand and smiled when Keith squeezed it back.

Just as Keith said they brought out a mechanic and just as Keith said he got her down to $3700.

Lance was so happy once he was handed the keys he threw his arms around Keith with a “Thanks Babe!” and watch the other flush all the way to his ears.

The drive home was a bit ruff as Lance’s brain was no willing to let go of the idea of Keith being his boyfriend. He admittingly may have been checking out Keith’s ass as he rode his bike in front of him.

He entertained the idea of them dating. Of him showing Keith he could have a relationship long enough to call him his boyfriend. He also pictured Keith pushing him up against the wall of the garage when he got home.

And that is where Lance forced his brain to think of cat memes and dancing tacos. He didn’t want to be sporting a tent when he got out of the car. He did not need to be thinking that way about his roommate.

Keith was getting off his bike as Lance pulled his new to him car into the garage.

“Hey,” Lance rushed out of the car, “Since you helped me today I figured I’d make you dinner tonight. Like without Ramon or noodles. Whatever you chose. Except Ramon.”

Lance was trying not to kick himself because it sounded like he was asking for a date. Or maybe he just wanted it to be.

Keith hung his helmet on his bike. “I can’t tonight I have an appointment at the gym then I’m going out with Shiro after.”

“Oh, that’s ok.” It’s not rejection, this was not a date Lance remined himself.

“How about on the 4th?” Keith suggested. “We’ll already be watching fireworks.”

“Sounds good. What would you like?”

Keith just smiled. “Surprise me.” And he disappeared into he house.

Lance stayed back he looked his car over one more time before heading in. The mantra of _it’s not a date, it’s not a date_ running through his mind.

____

 

Keith’s appointment had gone as normal, he then decided to run himself ragged on the treadmill after and then again in hand to hand training with Thace.  No matter how he wore himself out he couldn’t get the sound of Lance’s voice calling him _Babe_ out of his head.

Or the felling of his arm on Lance’s back.

Or how their hands fit perfectly together.

Keith who had never cared for serious relationships was now fantasying about having one with his roommate. He was fucked.

A french fry hit his face and fell to the plate in font of him.

“Quit brooding.” Shiro said before talking another bite of his burger.

“I’m not brooding.”

“Yes you are. What is it about this time? Is it about Lance?”

Keith just groaned and dropped his head back onto the diner’s cushion.

“It’s about Lance.” Shiro affirmed. “What is it?”

“I helped him buy a new car.”

“That’s a good thing Keith.”

“We acted as boyfriends to get a cheaper price.”

“That… umm… ok.”

“And I liked it.”

Shiro was silent for a moment that Keith had to look back up. He was chewing another bite watching   Keith.

“You know,” Shiro said. “I would make fun of you for this but I know you’ve struggled with serious relationships. Or just connecting with people in general.”

“Yes, Shiro we all know I have a problem. It’s called _I hate people_.”

“It’s been a few weeks since Lance started staying there?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you never took the time to get to know people before.” Shiro popped another fry in his mouth. “You can’t make lasting relationships out of one-night stands and hookups.”

“God you’re going to lecture me aren’t you.” Keith glared at his plate picking at the remaining food that he knew he won’t eat.

“It’s just maybe that is why you like the idea of Lance. You have been getting to know him slowly, just keep at it and see if it goes anywhere. Have you thought about going on a date with him? Or just hanging out?”

“He’s making me dinner on the 4th and watching the fireworks.”

“That sounds like a date.”

“I know but it isn’t.”

“Do you want it to be?”

“God _YES_.”

Shiro hummed, “Try flirting with him. See if he responds to it.”

“I don’t know how to _flirt_!” Keith pushed his plate away and drank the last of his soda. “Let’s just drop it for now, your advice sucks.”

Keith took the longer route home in order to clear his head. Walking in from the garage he found Lance sprawled across the couch snoring softly with Red curled up on his chest.

Keith paused to scratch behind Red’s ears. He did his best not to disturb Lance or cause him to wake up. He just looked too peaceful.

It wasn’t until he was fully in bed with his door closed that he let all the thoughts of Lance take over his mind. He thought of everything that had happened today and everything he wishes would happen.

He fell asleep to the images of Lance in his arms.

____

 

Lance had spent half the night on the phone with Hunk. He was going to put together the best 4th of July dinner he could think of. Hunk had given him tips on how to grill a steak and after snooping around the patio he was thankful to find a small grill. Pared with elotes, his mama’s recipe of course, and a strawberry shortcake from the store, Lance was confident that Keith will love it.

He didn’t intend to fall asleep on the couch and was disoriented when he woke up to Red sitting on his chest and batting at his nose.

A groan escaped him as he sat up and stretched. The couch was unforgiving on his back, he heard it pop as he stretched his arms further up in the air.

“That can’t be good for you.” Keith was sitting at the table, the Criminal Justice book and several others where open in front of him. 

“But it feels sooo gooooood.” Lance flopped back and tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. “Whatcha doin’?”

Keith didn’t look away from his book. “Found a practice quiz on line, though it would be good to study with.”

“Do you have to take a test? You’re not even in a class.”

“Alfor has a test that all new applicants have to take when applying. Helps them find good candidates for new officers.”

Lance watched him. Keith was just so dedicated to doing this on his own, to making something of himself. Lance couldn’t help but admire him on top of all the other new feelings he was dealing with.

“Cool, cool. Do you want some coffee?”

“There still some in there, help yourself.”

Lance poured himself a cup and topped off Keith’s. He didn’t interrupt him anymore as Keith continued to flip through various books searching for whatever answer he needed.  

Lance created a shopping list as he finished his coffee then got ready to head out. It felt good to be able to run to the store without having to ask Keith for a ride or take the bus. He could even fill up the cart with everything he needed and more because he didn’t have limit himself by how much he could carry.

It was good to have his independence back. On Independence Day no less. He laughed to himself at his own joke.

The trip to the store took longer than normal. It was packed. He couldn’t go down an aisle without four other people with carts being there too. He’s normally a people person but it was a bit frustrating. He was trying to make the perfect date here.

No… not a date.

Dinner. It was just dinner. A payback for a friend helping him out.

Keith had just been a good friend.

A friend who was nice enough to act as Lance’s boyfriend.

Lance stopped in the middle of the meat aisle.

Maybe… he could make this a date.

Keith and him had become comfortable with each other over the past few weeks but he wasn’t sure if Keith was interested in him in that way. If he treated this like a date and he put his signature moves on Keith, what would happen?

It was a risk. What if Keith wasn’t interested? What if he freaks out on Lance and kicks him out? What if he says he’s worthless just like Lotor did? What if…

“Excuse me”

Lance jumped as an old lady with white hair moved past him to better look at the meat selection.

“Oh… sorry.” He took a deep breath and pushed his cart out of the aisle.

This was not the place to have a mental breakdown he chided himself.

Picking up the last few things on his list he reminded himself that Keith was not like Lotor.

He reminded himself that he was not worthless.

He will continue with his new plan.

He will treat this dinner like a date.

He will show Keith what it’s like to have a real boyfriend.

If nothing happens after it’s ok he will get over it but he just wants one shot with Keith.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked it. 
> 
> My Tumbler is Cuptat feel free to come find me. I'll learn how to link it someday.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exhaling Lance tried to focus, “I’m okay, you just stun… stunned me.” Don’t look at his chest. Don’t look at his chest.  
> Keith let go of his arms, winding the earbuds in his hands around his fingers. “Sorry… wait what time is it?” Keith pulled out his phone from his pocket before Lance could respond.  
> “Shit am I late?” Keith’s hand racked his sweaty hair out of his face in a move that nearly made Lance whine. Why the hell was he so attractive?!  
> “Nononono, you’re not late,” Lance had to smile at how Keith instantly relaxed. “I… I couldn’t get the grill to light. I was looking for something to… to… toooo do that… with.”  
> “I can do that.” Keith finally stepped back gathering his things off the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First I want to say sorry this took so long. The end of July turned out to be a bit ruff for me and I had to put school and work first. No worries though life happens and it's all good now. Second thank you all for the comments this is still new to me I'm not used to sharing my work and I'm just so happy everyone is enjoying it.  
> Lastly I'm horrible at pronouncing anything so of course I projected that onto Keith.

Keith didn’t last long with the practice test.

Lance was being distracting.

The way he poured the coffee into Keith’s cup. The way he chewed on a pen while leaning over the counter as he made a list. He swears he saw Lance skip as he headed out the door.

Keith groaned slamming the book he had been trying to read shut. That boy was going to kill him.

He had too many thoughts going through his mind. Thoughts of Lance, thoughts of the applications, thoughts of flirting, thoughts of how he was going to get through this night.

He was done.

Gathering his books, he tossed them on his bed, only pausing long enough to grab his earbuds.

He didn’t want to think anymore.

The earbuds were in before he made it down to the basement. Kicking off his shoes he set to work through the first routine he could think of. Each punch, each kick working his muscles, releasing the tension and stress they had been holding.

He had woken up this morning too wound up. Stress already built up and clogging his thoughts.

It didn’t take long for the sweat to start running down his neck.

Keith stopped only to discard his shirt to the mat. Already feeling his thoughts calming down, worries becoming only a slight hum in the back of his mind.

He started the next routine.

_____

 

Lance was proud to cart all the grocery bags in from the garage in one go. Setting them all on the counter he began to gather everything he needed. It was still early for dinner but he liked to have everything ready to go.

Lance saw the motorcycle in the garage but its owner was no where to be seen.

He’ll find him later.

With everything prepped and in the fridge, Lance went outside to set up the grill. It was a small charcoal grill that looked like it had spent too many days in the sun.

Opening it he found that some of the neighborhood critters had been nesting there. With a groan he set to cleaning the grill out.

There was a low grumble to his side. Red was curled up on one of the outdoor chairs, only she wasn’t alone. Curled up next to her was another cat with blue gray fur that was not as well groomed as Red’s.

“Well look at you Red, you have a friend.” Lance flung the handful of debris into the garbage can. Brushing off his hands he slowly approached the two. With the way Red’s green eyes were trained on him he knew that any sudden moves would spook her and her friend.

Red grumbled again.

“Relax girl I just want to check out your friend.” Lance slowly raised a hand to scratch behind Red’s ears. At the movement the other cat lifted its head. Lance was met with striking blue eyes that rivaled his own. He slowed his movements to allow the other cat to smell him. With almost lazy motions the cat sniffed at his hand before curling its head back down next to Red.

Lance chanced reaching over and stroking the cat’s fur. It wasn’t as soft as Red’s. This as Lance realized is from the cat living outside. Its fur was matted in some areas and as Lance continued to stroke down it’s side it was clear this cat was not taken care of. Riding his luck he gently picked up the cat. Now he could see that it was a she and had no collar. Her weight and the feel of her ribs was concerning.

She didn’t protest as he held her to his chest and took her into the house. Red sprung to her feet and happily followed. Glancing at the clock he noted he had time before he needed to start cooking.

He filled the sink, grabbled Red’s shampoo and a towel and set to work. He was fully prepared to have his arms mauled as he attempted to wash a stray cat. That is not what happened. With Red sitting on the counter watching as the gray cat allowed Lance to wash her. She calmly sat in sink of lukewarm water and let Lance slowly work through her matted fur.

“Such a good girl.” He cooed as he rinsed her off and wrapped her in a towel. He swears she smiled at him.

Searching the cabinets he found a small blue bowl, filling it with food he set it next to Red’s on the floor.

“I guess I’ll call you Blue to match your eyes.” He gently patted her back as she ate. “Hopefully Mullet doesn’t mind cause I’m not letting either of you go back outside today. Not with the fireworks tonight.”

Lance made one quick check through the house to insure all the windows were closed. Closing the door tight behind him he set back to work on cleaning out the grill.

It didn’t take long to get everything set up. The grill was clean and filled with charcoal and the food was ready to start cooking.

 Lance was only a little concerned that he still hadn’t seen Keith yet.

Just a little…

Brushing aside his anxiety he lit a match and tossed it into the charcoal and waited.

The fire burnt down the match stick vanishing with a puff of smoke.

He lit another and tried again.

It burned but didn’t catch the coals.

Frustrated he held a lit match to one of the coals only to burn his fingers.

“OH COME ON!”

Storming back inside he hunted around the kitchen for anything that would help light the grill.

A meow sounded behind him. He turned to find Red and Blue curiously nosing at the door to the basement that was left slightly open.

“Shoo you two! I don’t know if you’re allowed down there!” Both of them darted off into the living room.

Standing this close to the door Lance could hear the rhythmic sound of thumping coming from behind it.  

He had yet to venture into the basement, figured now was as good a time as any. Had this been where Keith was hiding?

The staircase was dark but the landing was well lit from the room beyond. Still creepy. Why were basements always creepy?

The thumping sound grew louder as Lance descended the staircase. Small huffs and grunts soon joined in as Lance rounded the corner of the landing and… froze.

The basement looked like any other unfinish basement with exposed beams and bare concrete the exception was one side being a home gym.

And there on the mats with his back to Lance was Keith pounding his fists into a punching bag hanging from a beam in the ceiling.

Lance’s mouth suddenly felt dry and his face felt too warm.  

He stood there watching a very sweaty, very muscular Keith throw another punch at the bag.

His brain stopped functioning, watching the muscles move under the huge tattoo that snaked down the right side of Keith’s back. The serpent style dragon with black and red scales started below the waistband of his shorts winding back and forth until its head disappearing over Keith’s shoulder. Sweat dripped down his back from his soaked hair as he continued to hop around on the balls of his feet, pounding his fist into the bag.

Lance tried not to choke on the breath caught in his throat. Keith was fucking hot.

If he had known those muscles were hiding under his shirt Lance would have pounced this boy ages ago.

He doesn’t know how long he stood there just watching. Finally he got himself under control and stepped forward.

“Hey, Keith.”

No response.

Keith didn’t hear him. Lance reached out to tap his arm…

Lance’s vision blurs as he is wrenched forward his back slamming into something hard, his arms pinned to his sides. Lance opened an eye to see a wide-eyed Keith.

“Oh Shit!” Keith’s grip on Lance’s arms disappeared as he yanked the earbuds from his ears but quickly returned as the bag that was now behind him swung back bumping into Lance’s back throwing him off balance and into Keith.

“Sorry I thought… I thought you were Shiro, he likes to sneak up on me…” Keith held Lance steady.

Lance is still processing how he got into this position of being held between the punching bag and a very… very hot, sweat dripping down his chest, Keith. A chest that was just as sculpted as his back and... and… all other focus was gone.

Lance now had an up-close view of the tattoo dragon’s head that curved from over the shoulder to just below Keith’s collar bone that Lance was currently trying not to stare at.

“…bad reflex… Lance?” Keith’s brows were pinched with concern. “You okay?”

“WHat… OH… oh, Imok Imok.” Lance closed his eyes taking a deep breath, filling his nose with a musky smell that can only be described as Keith. That was not helping.

Exhaling Lance tried to focus, “I’m okay, you just stun… stunned me.” Don’t look at his chest. Don’t look at his chest.

Keith let go of his arms, winding the earbuds in his hands around his fingers. “Sorry… wait what time is it?” Keith pulled out his phone from his pocket before Lance could respond.

“Shit am I late?” Keith’s hand racked his sweaty hair out of his face in a move that nearly made Lance whine. Why the hell was he so attractive?!

“Nononono, you’re not late,” Lance had to smile at how Keith instantly relaxed. “I… I couldn’t get the grill to light. I was looking for something to… to… toooo do that… with.”

“I can do that.” Keith finally stepped back gathering his things off the floor.

With stupidly attractive Keith and his sexy musky smell finally not invading all of Lance’s senses he could think again. Though some of those thoughts were not helping him at this moment.

Keith was halfway to the staircase when Lance regained the movement of his body again. “Yeah, yeah that’ll be great.”

He followed Keith up the stairs trying not to concentrate too much on the tattoo or how far the dragon’s tail went below his waistband.  

____

 

Keith really didn’t mean to toss Lance across the room. If it had been Shiro he would’ve been sprawled across the mats like so many times before, but the instant Keith’s hand gripped an arm too thin to be Shiro’s and he tried to halt the motion.

Lance was leaner than Shiro but he was still a solid form that Keith had to try keep from hitting the floor. He had to pull him in close using his own weight to balance them out.

It was an accident… but…

He noticed how Lance’s face flushed. He noticed the catch in his breath. He noticed the looks Lance was sending him when he thought he wasn’t looking.

Keith knew he could have this effect on people he just didn’t think he had this effect on Lance.

He didn’t now how to flirt with words, not like Lance can. Keith relied on actions.

“You mean to tell me that the Great Lance McLain can’t light a fire.” Keith teased.

Lance pouted, “I can, I’m just out of practice. Hunk has a gas grill and it’s easier.”

Keith huffed a laugh and reached for the empty charcoal bag. Using the bag as a starter he soon had the coals smoking with a small flame.

“How?” Lance asked keeping his eyes on the grill.

“I have my secrets,” Keith smiled leaning in closer to Lance, “And I like to play with fire.”

He enjoyed watching the flush spread across Lance’s cheeks.

“Pyro.”

Keith laughed, “Yes and No, it was more out of necessity that learned how.” Lance’s eyes were back on his face avoiding his still bare chest.

“How so?” Lance asked.

Keith took a deep breath, savoring how those blues darted down for a fraction of a second as his chest puffed up.

“You know I’m not Shiro’s biological brother right.” It was common knowledge among their group of friends that Shiro’s family took in a trouble making juvenile delinquent also known as Keith.

Lance laughed, “Everyone knows that story, Shiro loves telling everyone about the little unruly teenager who stole his car.” His smile was bright and causing Keith’s stomach to do flips.

“Why?” Lance continued, “I’ve always wanted to know why you stole his car, it was mentor program right? He was there to help you.”

“I didn’t trust him or anyone at the time, I had just been plucked off the streets and placed in a home for troubled teens. Plus it was a fast car.” Keith shrugged. Lance’s eyes didn’t leave his, so he continued, “I learned how to build a fire from almost anything while living on the streets.”

“That is something I didn’t know.” Lance glanced back to the fire that was now taking over all of the coals now. “Explains why you’re such a ruffian.”

A laugh burst out of Keith, “Ruffian! I don’t think anyone has every called me that.”

“Would you prefer hooligan, or maybe thug?”

“No, no, ruffian sounds better. I think…”

Lance shoved Keith towards the house. “Alright Ruffian, your assistance is no longer required. Go shower while I finish cooking.”

Keith laughed ignoring the lingering traces that Lance’s fingers left on his skin.

“You have 20 mins or then you really will be late.” Lance called after him.

Keith hurried into the shower, the smile Lance left him with never leaving his face.  

 

____

 

Lance concentrated on grilling the steaks and the corn for the elotes. He tried to keep his mind on cooking but images of Keith kept creeping their way back into his thoughts. Images that would lead to another problem if he didn’t knock it off.

He was just finishing up the elotes when Keith reemerged. Wet hair combed back and fresh clothes, thank god he has a shirt on again, Lance could hardly concentrate already.

“Smells good.” Keith commented shyly as he leaned over the counter across from Lance. The steaks were already on the plates, Lance rolled the last elote in the cheese crumbles and placed it on the plate next to one of the steaks.

“I didn’t know how you liked your steak so I cooked them both to med-rare. Hunk’s recommendation.” Lance one of the plates over to Keith. “Shall we go outside?”

“Sure.” Keith picked up his plate, a fork and knife Lance handed him and headed out to the patio out back.

Lance followed with his own plate and grabbed two sodas for them on his way out.

The sun was beginning to set, splashing the sky with oranges and reds. Lance thought it was the perfect setting, then again, he is a hopeless romantic.

Both dug in, Lance was delighted to find his steak cooked perfectly. He looked to ask Keith how his was and notice it was already half gone. He took that as a good sign.

“So where are these fireworks going to be?” Lance asked between bites. The yard was pretty big and was mostly grass but there were a few trees near the fence line.

“Over there.” Keith pointed with his knife to the open sky off the left side of the yard. “There is a manmade lake a few blocks away and they shoot them off over there.”

“There is a lake nearby, why didn’t you tell me? Is there a beach?” Lance could feel excitement bubble under his skin He hadn’t been to a lake or beach of any kind since he came out here for school.

Keith seemed startled by Lance’s excitement, “Yeah there is, it’s small but nice.” A small smile crept across his lips. “I’ll show you some day.

“Dude, you have no idea how much I would love that.” Lance took another bite and snorted when he noticed Keith’s steak was gone. “So… it was good?”

Keith glanced down at his plate. “Yes.” He gingerly picked up the elote. “What is this?”

“It is called an elote, it is grilled corn with cream, mayo, peppers and a crumble cheese on it.”

“Eloot.”

“E-lo-te.”

“Elo-tea.”

“Close enough. Some call it Mexi-corn. Though my mamma will smack you if you call it that.”

Keith took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. Then another and another.

Lance smiled and finished his steak. Keith was done long before Lance was.

“I’ll start up the fire pit.” Keith said before taking his plate inside.

By time Lance had finished and cleared his plate Keith had a fire going.

“You really can start a fire no problem.” Lance said handing Keith a piece of strawberry short cake.

Keith’s eyes widened at the cake, “You really went all out for this.”

“I try.” Lance shrugged.

They both grew quiet watching the fire, the sky was darker now and the flames cast shadows through out the yard.

“They should start soon.” Keith broke the silence.

“Isn’t there normally music to go with them? Like on the radio or something?”

“Yeah,” Keith set his half-eaten cake down and disappeared into the house. A few minutes later he returned with an old boom box.

“OH MY GOD, that is so retro.” Lance nearly jumped next to Keith as he set it on the table. He had only seen an old boom box like this at his abuela’s house.

“It was Shiro’s, it has been around a while before he gave it to me.” Keith turned the knob and static blared through the speakers. “Hold on.” He adjusted the antenna and finally country music started to drift the air.

“Ew,” Keith turned the knob again searching the stations that came through.

“STOP!” Lance snatched Keith’s hand away from the radio as he heard the familiar guitar strings from the speakers. Keith let him tune into the station better until the song was crystal clear.

Lance couldn’t help himself he started singing along.

_“_ _Sí, sabes que ya llevo un rato mirándote,_ _  
_Tengo que bailar contigo hoy.”__

Lance continued to sing as he started moving with the beat. He only pause a moment to reach a hand to Keith who hesitated.

_“Vi que tu mirada ya estaba llamándome,_ _  
_Muéstrame el camino que yo voy.”__

Keith glanced at Lance’s hand before looking up meeting Lance’s eyes again. He doesn’t know what he saw there but Keith was taking his hand.

_“_ _Despacito”_

Keith let out a yelp as Lance pulled him in, wrapping an arm around his waist pulling him in close. It was a bold move but Keith wasn’t pushing him away.

_“_ _Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito._ __  
_Deja que te diga cosas al oído,_  
_para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo.”_

Lance guided them around the small patio, Keith relaxing in his arms as they danced. He dared to lean in closer to Keith, lowering his voice.

_“Despacito_ __  
_Quiero desnudarte a besos despacito._  
_Firmar en las paredes de tu laberinto_  
_y hacer de tu cuerpo todo un manuscrito”_

Taking Keith’s hand, he spun him out then back in, relishing the smile that spread across Keith’s face and the giggle that escaped him.

_“Quiero ver bailar tu pelo, quiero ser tu ritmo_ __  
_Que le enseñes a mi boca, tus lugares favoritos._  
_Déjame sobrepasar tus zonas de peligro,_  
_hasta provocar tus gritos_  
_y que olvides tu apellido”_

Keith arched a brow as the singer changed and the lyrics sped up, Lance never missing a word.

_“Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito._ __  
_Nos vamos pegando, poquito a poquito._  
_Cuando tú me besas con esa destreza_  
_veo que eres malicia con delicadeza._  
_Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito._  
_Nos vamos pegando, poquito a poquito._  
_Y es que esa belleza es un rompecabezas,_  
_pero pa’ montarlo aquí tengo la pieza._  
_¡Oye!”_

He didn’t miss the pink tinge in Keith’s cheeks as he swayed their hips together. Popping sounds started over head but neither bothered to look up.

_“Despacito”_

Lance finishes the song though he doesn’t remember doing it. He only remembers the colors lighting up Keith’s beautiful features and the fireworks reflecting in his dark eyes.

____

 

Keith was speechless.

The way Lance moved, the way he sang, the way he was making Keith feel was overwhelming.

This man was going to kill him.

“Ah, sorry I got a bit carried away.” Lance stepped back rubbing the back of his neck.  

A large BOOM sounded over head catching their attention. The fireworks flowered out and filling the sky, sparking as they rained down.

Keith hadn’t even noticed they started.

Glancing back at Lance, “You know I’ve never danced with anyone before.”

He doesn’t know why he says it. Or why he feels it is important for him to say.

Lance’s attention was back on him in an instant. “No…?”

Keith only nodded and looked back up to the fireworks again.

“Well, then,” Lance grabbed his hand and spun him around like before. “We are absolutely doing it again.”

Lance didn’t pull him in close this time, Keith ignored the slight disappointment as he felt Lance’s hand lingering on his. He took the chance, readjusting his hold and lacing their fingers together.

Lance didn’t pull away.

Keith could feel him watching but didn’t dare look at him. Lance would sure see the red Keith could feel spreading across his face. Even with only fireworks and firelight he is sure Lance could see it.

Lance then stepped in closer to Keith’s side, resting his head on his shoulder as they watched the fireworks above.

“OOOooo, that one was cool.” Lance commented as a large explosion of white lit up the sky.

“Yeah,” Keith reminded himself to breath. This was good. He could feel a shift in things between them. This is what he had been hoping for. Why was he so nervous?

Keith huffed out a breath forcing his body to relax a bit.

Lance noticed, “You alright there Rufian?” he brought his free hand up and patted on Keith’s chest.

 “Rufian?”

“Spanish version of Ruffian.”

“Are you going to start calling me that now.” Keith laughed allowing the rest of his body to relax.

Lance smiled, “Well I could always go back to Mullet.”

Without releasing Keith’s hand Lance turned him so they were facing each other.

“Naw, I bet you could come up with a better one.” Keith rested his free hand on Lance’s hip.

He could hear the explosions over head increase, signaling the grand finale, but he couldn’t look up. He couldn’t look away from the blue eyes that were locked on to him. “Can I…”

Lance didn’t let him finish, silencing him with a brush of his lips. They were soft and hesitant at first but once Keith tilted his head Lance pushed in deepening the kiss.

It only lasted a few moments before Lance was pulling away, eyes locking on Keith’s again.

Lance had just kissed him.

He just made the move, beating Keith to it.

Lance watched him with a nervousness building behind his eyes.

“Please tell me that’s what you were going asking.” Lance’s voice was just above a whisper.

Keith was taking too long to answer, he could feel Lance begin to take a step back.

Tightening his grip on Lance’s hip he pulled him back in. Releasing their laced fingers Keith cupped Lance’s cheek and watched as the nervousness left his eyes and a smile tugged at his lips. Lips that Keith was wanting to feel against his again.

“Definitely.” Keith pushed their lips together.

His kiss was the opposite of Lance’s. It was ruff and Keith was too eager, pulling Lance in and refusing to let go. Every move he made thankfully Lance met it with the same intensity.

Lance shifted, stepping back but dragging Keith with him. His hands gripped tight onto Keith’s shirt never releasing their lips he maneuvered them toward the door.

Keith let him, moving along willingly.

Lance pull him into the kitchen and pushing him up against the door as it closed. Lance took advantage of the gasp Keith let out and slipped his tongue in alongside Keith’s.

Pushing into Keith further, Lance explored his mouth. All Keith could do was hold on to Lance’s hips, fingers sliding under the hem of his shirt finding the soft skin there.

Lance’s fingers found their way into Keith’s hair, his movements much smoother and more deliberate than last time. They hit a sweet spot and Keith couldn’t help the moan that escaped him. Sliding his own hands further up Lance’s smooth back.

Lance paused, his fingers slowing until they slid out of Keith’s hair to rest on his chest. Lance’s lips left Keith’s but he leaned into him more resting their foreheads together.

“This is the opposite of _despacito._ _” Lance breathed._

“I don’t know what dispceeto means?”

Lance huffed a small laugh across Keith’s cheek, a smile stretching wide across his flushed face. “You just butchered that, and it means slowly.”

“Dispceeto.” Keith tried again but it sounded nothing close to how Lance was saying it.

“Des-pa-see-toe.”

“Dispiseetoe”

“DES-PA-see-toe.”

“Dispaseeto.”

“I’m just going to kiss you again so you’ll stop butchering my native language.” Lance’s lips were on Keith’s again stopping any protest that he may have had.

The kiss was softer than before, less heated and as much as Keith wanted that heat back he was not going to ignore the fact that Lance just hinted that he wanted to go slow.

He removed his hands from under Lance’s shirt but still held him close. Lance released his lips again bringing a hand up to smooth his thumb over Keith’s bottom lip.

“We can go slowly.” Keith breathed. He watched a small smile grace Lance’s lips.

“I’d like that.” Lance leaned his head down onto Keith’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around Keith’s back.

Keith doesn’t know how long they held onto each other. He had started to draw patterns onto Lance’s back with his fingers when he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Focusing back on the room around them he found a set of familiar green eyes peeking around the corner at them… and some unfamiliar blue ones…

“Uh, Lance,” his voice was not as low as before but still a little rougher than normal. “Why is there an extra cat in the kitchen?”

“UHhh!” Lance spun from Keith’s arms following his gaze, “I forgot to tell you. Red made a friend.”

Keith watched as Lance crossed the kitchen to picked up a scrawny looking gray cat.

“This is Blue.” Lance held the cat out to Keith who was eyeing it suspiciously.

“Blue?”

“I was sticking with your color theme.” Lance huffed and pushed Blue into Keith’s arms. “Besides she’s Red’s bestie so it’s fitting that they have matching names.”

Keith eyed the cat in his arms, she was mellow compared to Red. Blue didn’t seem to care how he was holding her, she just watched him with wide blue eyes.

Red brushed up against his leg grumbling up at him.

“Is this your doing?” Keith looked down at her. She grumble again at him. “Fine we’ll keep her.” He put Blue down and watched as both cats circled around each other once then darted from the room.

Lance sighed, “I should head to bed. I’ve got an early shift tomorrow.”

“Yeah, me too.” Keith stepped into Lance’s space. “Thank you for dinner.”

Lance flushed then placed a soft kiss on Keith’s cheek, “Anytime.”

There was a pause before Lance pulled away, “Goodnight Keith,” and strolled out of the kitchen.

“Goodnight Lance.” Keith didn’t move until he heard the door to Lance’s room close. He then huffed out the breath he didn’t know he was holding.

He leaned back against the door again. He still had to go put out the fire and clean up but his legs feel like jelly and his heart was beating a million miles per minute. He took in a deep breath with the realization that that man in the other room was going to slowly destroy him.

And Keith was going to let him do it.

 

____

 

Lance felt like he was flying. He could still feel Keith’s lips on his. There was a buzz under his skin that refused to die down where Keith’s hands had traced shapes on his back.

He fell face first on to the bed and screamed into the pillows.

He kissed Keith.

Keith kissed him back.

He screamed into the pillows again.

It was pure luck that that song came on the radio and that his sister had made him listen to it a thousand times to where he could sing it by heart.

Pure luck.

With a sigh he flipped over and stared at the ceiling. A smile never leaving his face. Stupidly attractive Keith had kissed him.

There was no way he was going to fall asleep tonight.

 

 

Lance didn’t sleep at all.

He has just barely fallen into what was possible the best dream ever featuring his favorite Rufian when his alarm went off.

He cursed himself for leaving his phone on the dresser across the room. The upbeat tone pulling him back into the land of the living.

He has never hated that sound more than he does right now. After listening to the tone a few times too many he finally dragged himself out of bed and into the shower. The shower had done nothing for him, he still felt dead. Opening the bathroom door he was met with the smell of coffee that drifted from the kitchen.

Lance was drawn to it without even thinking, entering the kitchen he paused at the sight before him.

He had been prepared for some awkwardness after last night, but he was not prepared for the cuteness that was in front of him.

Keith, whose hair was still tousled from sleep, was holding Red to his shoulder with one hand as Red squirmed and growled trying to get free, clawing onto his shirt furiously.  With his other hand Keith was batting a crumpled coffee filter around in front of Blue who was sitting on the counter. Blue watched the coffee filler but made no move to try and snatch it from Keith.

Lance had to give him credit because he was trying. Keith batted the filter right up to Blue’s paws and watched her with expecting eyes. Blue just looked up on him. Keith crawled his finger across the counter and snatched the filter back but Blue again made no move. Lance watched with amusement as Keith tried to again but Blue showed no interest all while Red squirmed and grumbled as he held her from her toy.

“Fine.” Keith huffed giving up on the filter and letting Red go who immediately launched herself at the filter snatching it in her paws before sliding across the counter and over the edge of the other side. A soft thud sounded in the kitchen and both Lance and Keith burst into laughter. Blue hopping down after her.

Keith’s dark eyes found Lance’s as he realized he wasn’t alone in the room anymore.

“Hey,” A small smile played on Keith’s lips as he glance away.

“Hey yourself,” Lance reached around Keith to grab his cup from the cabinet boxing Keith between him and the counter. He smiled at the blush that spread across Keith’s cheeks, soaking up how adorable he was now.

Or maybe he had always been but Lance just never took the time to properly see it.

Now it was all he could see.

“Did you sleep well?” Keith asked pretending to study his nails and not look so flustered with Lance only a few inches away from him.

He was failing, Lance smiled as the tips of Keith’s ears started to turn pink.

Lance shrugged, “It was alright.” He grabbed Keith’s red cup as well setting it next to Keith.

“Liar.” Keith huffed crossing his arms.

Lance forged shocked, “I would _never_.”

“You didn’t sleep, your eyes still look tired.”

“Are you insulting me?”

“What? NO.” Keith looked worried for a moment.

“I’m joking,” Lance smiled at him as he turned away to fill both their cups with the now finished coffee. “I slept like shit.”

Keith still looked a bit worried as he continued to stand with his arms crossed now staring at the floor.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lance handed Keith his coffee, “I suffer from bouts of insomnia, it’s normal.”

Keith carefully took the mug, “So… we’re good?”

And there was the awkwardness Lance had been expecting. “We are better than good.”

Keith smiled as he sipped his coffee, visibly relaxing a little.

Lance sighed noting the clock over Keith’s shoulder. “I’ve gotta go, Shay is going to kill me if I’m late.”

Lance hastily gathered his things. Coffee still in hand, he managed to finish it off as he slipped his shoes on. Keith watched his from the kitchen with a small smile playing on his lips.

With one more quick goodbye Lance was out the door and driving to work. Thankfully he had made it on time, locking his car his phone chimed with a text notification.

K: have a good day

Lance couldn’t help the smile tugging at his lips.

L: you too Rufian <3

His phone buzzed again as he put his apron on, he was disappointed as he found it was not another text from Keith but an email notification. Recognizing the college email address he opened it up.

Skimming through it his stomach sank a bit. It was a _missing information_ for his next semester notification. Information that Lance didn’t know how to answer when he did the early registration for the fall semester while he was still living with Lotor.

He still didn’t know how to answer it.  

Lance glared down at the highlighted _Residence Status_ before exiting out of the email and pocketing his phone. He figured he had a month before he needed to decide.

He had time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope you enjoyed this one. I couldn't resist putting Despacito in there because of course Lance would know it. The next chapter will be the last but I do have a Halloween and Christmas one shots as well. 
> 
> Tumblr [Cuptat](https://cuptat.tumblr.com/)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What did you do?!” Keith glared.  
> “What are you talking about?” Lance glared back picking up Blue and bag of stuff he got.  
> Keith’s eyes fell to Blue in Lance’s arms, “OH MY GOD!”  
> “What?! I took her to the vet.” Lance huffed.  
> Keith swung an arm out gesturing to the door to the house. “You took her friend and now Red is on a rampage in there!”  
> “OH MY GOD THAT IS NOT MY FAULT!” Lance went to the door and placed his ear to it in time to hear something crash on the other side. Both of them flinched at the sound, Blue even perked up and started to squirm in Lance’s arms. “What do we do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is taking me longer than I thought but it's almost done. There is one more chapter after this one(I know I said that last time but this time I mean it) followed by a couple of one shots for the series. Funny thing is this whole story was just going to be a one shot and here we are 4 chapters later. Just a heads up I've got some other fics I might put up soon. My ADD brain didn't want to settle down this past month and now I have twice as many wips as before. I'll start sharing them with everyone once they are done.

He did not have time.

Not for this.

Keith glared at the stack of orders sitting on his desk. Apparently there had be a drug bust that lead to a high-speed chase resulting in many of the squad cars needing repairs or even replaced. All of this on top of the regular maintenance that had to be done. Coran and him had to evaluate all of them.

It was only 9:30am and he was already covered in grease up to his elbows.

It was going to be a long day.

He did not have time for this. This being Shiro hovering over him asking questions that Keith didn’t know how to answer.

“How was the not-a-date date?” Shiro grinned from the other side of Keith’s desk.

Keith glared at his brother who was pretending to pick lint off his uniform.

“Fine.” Keith gathered the forms and check list for the next car and promptly left the garage office. Shiro of course followed.

“Fine as in good or fine as in the house burnt down.” Shiro shove into Keith’s shoulder, “Did you sweep him off his feet?”

Keith just groaned as he got on the creeper and pushed himself under the squad car. The car had taken a nasty hit in the side He needed to inspect it to see if it was repairable.

It wasn’t, he didn’t have to look very hard to see the frame damage.

“Keith you have to give me something!”

Keith pushed himself from under the car sending his best death glared up at Shiro. “There were fireworks. It was fantastic.”

Keith then pulled himself back under the car out of Shiro’s sight. He didn’t need to check anything else he was just done with the conversation.

“I sense sarcasm.”

“It is the foundation of our relationship.”

Shiro huffed, “That is not a good thing Keith, just tell me if things are good between you two.”

Things were going good, he just didn’t know what to do now, “They are good, better than good.”

“That’s awesome!”

Keith pushed himself out and sat up, “But I have no idea what I’m doing, and I know he’s got some stuff to deal with, so even though it was a great kiss, I don’t know what to do next. I don’t know how to date normally.”

“YOU GUYS KISSED!” Shiro nearly screamed causing Keith to flinch.

“KEEP IT DOWN! And that was not the point.” Keith shot to his feet shoving his bother as he walked back to his desk.

“Who did it first?” Shiro followed.

“Shiro again not the point. I don’t know what to do now.” Keith sighed, “Why do I even tell you these things?”

“Well you guys are in a weird situation already,” Shiro was way too eager to give advice, “you’re already living together. Maybe just take him out on a date like to dinner or something.”

“He said something about the beach.” Keith toyed with the idea, it did sound fun.

“There you go take him to the lake, that will be fun.” Shiro smiled satisfied with himself.  

“Yeah maybe.” Keith shrugged.

“His birthday is at the end of the month you know, you can take him then.” Keith nearly jumped out of his skin as Allura appeared next to them out of nowhere. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” She smiled bright.

“It’s ok.” Keith tried to get he heart rate back to normal. “When’s who’s birthday?”

“Lance’s, and it’s July 28th, and I think a picnic by the lake would be lovely.” She hummed.

“That sounds doable.” Keith nodded.

“Now, I came to see if you both want to go down to the café and get some coffee.” Allura flashed a knowing smile at Shiro.

“Sure.” Shiro returned the same smile.

Keith could see they were on a mission to get any and all the details from Lance and his not-a-date date. Which he wasn’t sure if Lance would keep to himself or tell them every little detail.

“No, I’ve got too much work to do.” Keith glanced at his hands thinking that it was probably best as his blacken fingers were a mess right now. It was hard enough not getting the paperwork covered in grease.

Allura smiled, “I’ll bring something back for you what would you like?”

“An iced Americano is fine, thanks.”

Shiro and Allura both turned for the door, “Plus we can ask Lance how the date went?” Shiro whispered not quite low enough for Keith to miss.

“That’s the real reason I’m going.” Allura giggled in the same hushed tone.

“I heard that!” Keith watched them disappear out of the garage bay door but could still hear them laughing.  

____

 

Lance felt drained but happy. He felt that any moment he could crash and take a nap under the espresso machine.

Shay even noted how tired he looked, patting him on the back, “Stayed up too late with the fireworks didn’t you?”

“Uh, yeah, but I don’t regret it one bit.” He smiled thinking of last night.

There was a lull in customers as the morning rush was dying down.

“I take it that things are going good with you staying with Keith.” Shay commented as she started to clean the pastry case, moving things forward to make room for more. “You seem happier.”

“I am, things are better.” Lance took to wiping down the counters.

“That is good.” She paused in her motions, “Hunk has been worried. I told him not to but you know how he is.”

“I know,” Lance smiled thinking of how Hunk is just a big softy, “There is no reason to worry everything is good.”

“Have you figured out what to do about school, since you know Hunk is moving in with me?”

Lance that Shay felt a little guilty, like she was taking Hunk from Lance but honestly Lance didn’t see it that way. He was just happy for Hunk. He could still remember the time Hunk had vented to him that he was having a hard time meeting someone. Hunk just wasn’t clicking with anyone, then a few months later Lance started working at the Balmara café and the rest is history. As Lance had told him then the big guy had nothing to worry about.

“No worries Shay, I’ve got a plan in mind.” He did not have a plan.

Shay leveled him with a look that showed no faith in him, “A better plan than the Lotor one, I hope.”

“That is for sure, that… that will not happen again.” It will defiantly never happen again.

“Good.” Shay smiled at him, “I’ve got to get more pastries from the back.”

“Go on I’ve got it covered out here.” Lance waved her off.

The truth is Lance knew what he wanted but after Lotor he was just a little hesitant to jump in. He had entertained the idea of staying where he was, living with Keith, but what they had was still new and undefined.

He still needed to confirm his residency with the school and had a week or so to do so. Lance was so wrapped up in his mind he almost missed the door jingled open and Allura and Shiro strolled in.

“Hey guys! How’s it going?” Lance could already see the twinkle in Allura’s eyes and the smirk on Shiro’s lips. They’re not just here for coffee.

“Well hello Lance,” Allura leaned over the counter placing her chin in her hand. “We are doing just fine, how are you doing?”

Lance glanced back and forth between the two suspiciously. “Greeeat.”

“So, how did your date go?” Allura asked.

Lance could feel the heat rush to his face, “Geeze Allura, don’t you want to order first.”

“Large caramel latte, large vanilla latte, and large americano iced to go please.” Shiro read off rapidly.

“Yes, now spill, how was the date.” Allura pressed.

Lance was still trying to punch the order in while as Shiro was handing him his card. These two are just too eager to know what happened and Lance was a little afraid of them.

“Oh add in a blueberry muffin, Keith loves those.” Shiro chimed right as Lance took his card.

Lance adjusted the order and ran Shiro’s card.

Allura began to tap the counter excessively, “Laaannccce tell us, please!”

“I don’t know if I want to,” He got to work on the order, “You seem waaay to excited to know, it’s kinda scary.”

 “Keith said you kissed start there.” Shiro laughed as Lance nearly dropped the latte he had started.

“WHAT!? HE TOLD YOU?”

“OOOOH YES! Start there!” Allura was jumping excitedly now.

“Uhhh.” Lance focused on the coffee in his hands. “I did… kiss… him.”

“Oh _you_ kissed him?” Shiro leaned over the counter putting his hand on his chin mimicking Allura’s pose.

Lance paused to glare at them both, “Guys… that’s really creepy.”

Allura hummed, “Did you enjoy yourself?” she took mercy on him taking a step back from the counter and nudging Shiro to do the same.

“Yes,” Lance couldn’t help the but smile, “It was nice.”

“Good, you deserve to have a nice time every now and then,” Allure eyes soften.

Lance reached for the last cup and began to add the ice.

“The Americano is for Keith,” Shiro nodded to the cup in Lance’s hand, “he’s had a busy day already or else I would’ve dragged him with us.”

Lance grinned, “Is that so.” He pulled a sharpie from his apron and drew a little doodle on the clear plastic cup. It will be hard to see once it’s filled with coffee but Lance couldn’t help himself.

It didn’t take long for Lance to finish the drinks and grab a muffin.

“Well thanks for coming in and meddling in my love life. Enjoy your coffee.” Lance handed the drinks over.

“I sense sarcasm.” Allura sipped her Latte.

“My god they’re perfect for each other.” Shiro laughed as they headed for the door, “Seeya later Lance.”

Lance arched a brow at him, “See… Ya.”

Shiro suddenly popped his head back in, “One more thing.” A devilish grin spread across his face. As he yelled across the café, “No screwing in my bed.”

Lance let out an indignant yelp as Shiro disappeared out the door. His face felt on fire as he hid from the few customers that were still in the café, he hid behind the expresso machine he can’t say he hadn’t thought about it.

____

 

Keith was just finishing up another inspection when Coran returned from a meeting with Alfor with iced coffee and small bag in hand.

“Well, there you are, Allura says this is for you.” Coran’s mustache twitched as he handed Keith the coffee and bag. “Can’t say I like the stuff, tea is more my game.”

“Thanks Coran,” Opening the bag Keith saw a blueberry muffin. He smiled knowing it was from Shiro, an apology muffin for prying too much.

“Oh and just to let you know Alfor informed me that we will need to order a few more squad cars as he opened applications for officers this morning.” Coran winked, “Seems he wants to add a few more to the force.”

Keith perked up at that, “Really?!”

“Yes, my dear boy,” Coran twisted the end of his mustache, “You know _now_ seems like a good time for you to go to break. You’ve been working hard all morning.”

Keith nodded, “Sure… I’ll be back in a few… thanks Coran”

He’s not sure how Coran would know that he had been waiting for the applications to open, but then the man seemed to know everything. Keith didn’t think too much on it as he made his way back to his desk instead of the break room. Pulling up the precinct’s web page he found the application tab and began filling everything in. He nervously sipped his coffee as he went through all the forms, one by one and attached his resume. He only hesitated a moment before hitting submit, he wasn’t going to back out now.

He sat back with a sigh, it was done. All he had to do now was wait for someone to call him to take the test. He’s never been good at waiting, he could already feel a tension building in his body the more he thought about it. What if he wasn’t good enough?

It was then that Keith noticed the doodle on the side of his now empty cup. There were two little stick figures, one with short hair was hugging another with longer hair. He rotated the cup to find ‘Hang in there, Mullet’ written in a speech bubble.

Keith smiled and pulled out his phone, snapping a pic.

K: so we’re back to Mullet now

L: you’re a man of many names

K: thanks

K: for the doodles

L: Shiro said you were busy

L: is everything good?

K: yes

Lance replied with a string of emojis and hearts that made Keith’s heart skip. Finishing off his muffin He set back to work.

A few hours later Keith felt like he was covered in another layer of grease. The garage phone rang cutting through the music Keith had blaring through his headphones. Wiping his hands he picked up the phone.

“This is Keith.”

“Oh good you’re still here.” Romelle’s voice greeted him.

“At least for another couples of hours.” He continued to clean his hands off the best he could.

“I’m calling to schedule your evaluation test.” Romelle voice was very chipper as if she was very excited to tell him this.

“Oh,” Keith was a bit shocked, “I didn’t expect you to call so quickly.”

“Normally we don’t but Alfor wanted me to get you in as soon as possible.”

Keith’s nerves where going crazy as he set a time the following week to take the physical and written evaluations. He wrote the time and number that Romelle gave him on his arm. He’d scrub it off with the grease later.

“One last thing Romelle, don’t mention this to anyone, not even Shiro.”

There was a small questioning hum before, “Sure, I’ll also let Alfor know you want to keep this hushed.”

“Thanks,”

“Good luck Keith.”

Keith plugged his headphones back in and went back to work ignoring his nerves twisting inside him.

____

 

Lance still had half a day when he got off of work. The benefit of the early shift is that it left your afternoon and nights open. Although he wanted nothing more than to take a nap he instead opted to take Blue in to get checked out and after a long conversation about how to get Blue to a healthy weight and how to treat strays she was in the clear. The wait had been long though and it was evening once they finished up and he headed to the pet store.

He was browsing through the collars and toys when his phone buzzed.

K: picking up chinese what do you want

Lance had a feeling that Keith was done with the day. It was already a couple hours past when his shift should’ve ended.

L: Sweet n’ sour pork and lo mein please

K: k

Lance sent a bunch of heart emojis but wasn’t surprised when he didn’t get any back. Keith didn’t seem like an emoji type of guy.

Lance picked out a nice blue and white color with rhinestones, got a tag made to match, and lastly picked out 2 tiny kitty sweaters. One blue and one red, Blue herself was content to be carried around the whole time. She was just such a mellow cat. Satisfied with everything he headed to register then home. 

By time Lance got home it was dark and he could see the light on in the garage as he pulled up. A very angry looking Keith was leaning against the work bench with his arms crossed still in his red and white motorcycle jacket. Which Lance found kinda sexy even if it was too short.

Lance barely opened the car door before Keith was grilling him.

“What did you do?!” Keith glared.

“What are you talking about?” Lance glared back picking up Blue and bag of stuff he got.  

Keith’s eyes fell to Blue in Lance’s arms, “OH MY GOD!”

“What?! I took her to the vet.” Lance huffed.

Keith swung an arm out gesturing to the door to the house. “You took her friend and now Red is on a rampage in there!”

“OH MY GOD THAT IS NOT MY FAULT!” Lance went to the door and placed his ear to it in time to hear something crash on the other side. Both of them flinched at the sound, Blue even perked up and started to squirm in Lance’s arms. “What do we do?”

Keith just shrugged, “I don’t know I’ve never seen her this pissed before, she attacked me the second I tried to open the door.”

“She’s your cat you’re supposed to know how to handle her!” Lance yelped as another crash sounded behind the door and followed by a thud on the door itself. “I think she’s a bit protective of Blue.”

“Gee what gave you that idea?”

“Cool it Mullet. I’ve got an idea.” Lance closed the garage door and glanced around making sure there was no escapes routes. “Ok I’m gonna put Blue down and then you are going to open the door.”

“Why do I have to open the door?” Keith pouted. It would be cute if Lance wasn’t so irritated with him.

“Because she’s your cat and probably more pissed at me than you.”

Lance gently put Blue down than quickly ducked behind Keith as he opened the door. Both of them ducking behind the door and waiting for any sign of Red.

After a minute Lance didn’t hear anything and started to peek around Keith to see what was going on.

“Where is she?” Lance whispered.

“I don’t know.” Keith whispered back.

Inside the house was dark but Lance could make out debris all over the floor. Something definitely got shredded in there.

Lance glanced at Blue who sniffed the air a bit then slowly trotted into the house. Lance and Keith eyed her as she made her way in without any issue.

“Where _is_ she?” Lance whispered again. He had expected to see Red jump out as soon as Blue entered.

“I don’t know and why are we even whispering she can still hear us, she’s a cat.” Keith poked his head out further.

“Seems like we should be, I mean we are hiding behind a door from said devil cat.”

Keith huffed out a quite laugh that slowly turned louder and louder until it was obvious he was not trying to hold it back anymore.

“What’s so funny?” Lance didn’t even bother to keep his voice down anymore.

“This… this…” Keith struggled between fits of laughter. “She’s just… just a… cat.”

“Great now you’ve lost it and I have to deal with devil cat myself.” Lance slowly stepped over Keith who was laughing on the floor now and poked his head into the house.

He didn’t even get a foot all the way in before Red was dropping down on him from who knows where, digging her claws into his shoulder before launcher herself off again and landing lightly on her paws. She trotted over to Blue who was now sitting by the kitchen watching the chaos.

Keith burst out into laughter again behind Lance.

“ _YOU_ are not helping!” Lance rubbed his shoulder stepping into the house. There was what looked to be paper everywhere. Red was now sniffing at the new collar on Blue making sure that the other was in fact alright.

“See, I just took her to get checked out, I even bought you guys matching sweaters!”

“I don’t think she cares much about sweaters.” Keith was still wiping tears from his eyes as he brought in the bags they had left in the garage. One of them was smelling delicious as he walked by to placing them in the kitchen.

The house was a disaster. Red had shredded the paper towels and the toilet paper, both left with claw marks in the cardboard roll. Several chairs from the table were knocked over and anything that was on the table or counters was now on the floor.

“I’m gonna change out of my work clothes then I’ll help clean up.” Keith disappeared down the hallway.

“Same.”

Lance made quick work of sheading his work clothes and changing into shorts and a muscle tee. Rubbing his shoulder he felt the sting where Red’s claws had got him. He made his way to the bathroom to check the damage.

Keith was scrubbing what looked like grease from under his nails as Lance stepped in next to him, inspecting his shoulder in the mirror.

“She got you good.” Keith noted as he dried his hands eyeing the small specs of blood on Lance’s shoulder. “Let me clean you up.”

Opening a drawer Keith pulled a first aid kit that looks like it has seen better days. Taking a cotton ball Keith slowly began cleaning the scratches that Red left on him.

“Sorry for yelling at you… in the garage,” Keith placed a band aid over one particularly bad scratch. “and for laughing.”

The smile that was playing on Keith’s lips told him he still found this whole situation funny and really it was. The more Lance thought about the more ridiculous it was, soon small huffs of laughter were escaping from him too.

“You had to hide in the garage from your own cat.” Lance’s laughter had died down as Keith finished patching up his shoulder.

That’s when Lance noticed something on Keith’s arm. It looked like…

“Hey what’s that?” Lance pointed to the mirror where Keith’s arm was reflected.

Keith glanced up to meet Lance’s eyes in the mirror, “It’s a number.”

Lance eyed him suspiciously, he’s not worried that Keith was picking up numbers, he really wasn’t.

“You jealous?” Keith teased from behind him sending a knowing smirk.

“Noooo,” Lance shrugged it off he was sure it was nothing. “I’m just curious.”

“I got it from Romelle.” Keith was still watching Lance with that smirk while placing one more band aid on his shoulder.

Lance took a minute to think about that, because Keith was not into women so he was trying to figure out what Keith would need Romelle’s number for. She just worked dispatch and sometimes worked with Allura but why would she need to work with Keith?

“Lance,” Keith huffed a laugh, “Don’t worry it’s the number for the evaluation test. They opened the applications today and called me only a few hours after I applied.”

“OH MY GOD THAT’S GREAT!” Lance was jumping up and down with excitement. “This is great! You’ve been working so hard for it!”

Keith held on to Lance’s arms as his jumping settled down. “I know but I’m a bit nervous and calm down I haven’t even taken the test yet.”

“No, no you have nothing to worry about you got this!”

Keith was beaming at him. “I hope so.”

“Let’s eat and celebrate, we can clean up tomorrow.” Lance leaned in and placed a light kiss on Keith’s cheek. Then he was dragging a very red-faced Keith into the kitchen.

____

 

They had eaten themselves into to a food coma while watching episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

“You’re totally gonna be a Rosa.” Lance had said before he fell asleep against Keith’s side. Keith himself was not far behind with his head resting on top of Lance’s.

This was new to him. Keith has never been in this situation before, to just fall asleep next to someone without the hookup.

It was easy and calm.

He likes it.

It had been a busy, a chaotic day and the house was still a mess from Red’s tantrum. Yet, he wasn’t mad, he wasn’t nervous, he was happy. Happy to just sit here listening to Lance’s soft breathing as the next episode started. Soon he was lights out.

 

A movement woke Keith up. A slight shift in the weight that was laying on his chest. Keith didn’t open his eyes, not ready to face the world yet. The warm weight on him had to be Lance, who hummed low as he shifted again trying to bury himself deeper between Keith and the couch. Lance let out a short huff of warm air across Keith’s collar bone.

“I know you’re wake.” Lance’s voice was ruff with sleep, “your breathing changed.”

Keith groaned warping an arm around Lance and pulling him in even closer, refusing to open his eyes just yet.

“Do you work today?” Lance asked.

“No.” Keith still clinging to the last bit of sleep.

“Me neither.” Lance made no move to get up, just relaxed even more into Keith’s hold.

Soon Keith could hear Lance’s breathing even out as he fell back asleep, himself not far behind.

 

The ringing of Keith’s phone woke them up, blaring through the quiet house. Keith blindly reached over to the coffee table, fumbling around until his fingers found his phone.

Coran was calling.

“Hey Coran.” Keith answered as quietly as possible as Lance still looked half asleep.  

Their conversation was short. Coran had salvaged a bunch of parts from the totaled squad cars and was offering them to Keith to see if they would work in Lance’s car. Keith whispered his appreciation before hanging up and tried to slide out from under Lance.

His slow movements didn’t go unnoticed as Lance’s arms tightened around Keith followed by a sleepy, “No.”

“We have to get up at some point.” Keith whispered brushing Lance’s hair from his face.

“No.”

Keith tried to wiggle out again.

Lance’s arms tightened even more. “No.”

How did Lance have this much strength in the morning was a mystery to Keith. “I have to get up Lance.”

Lance huffed but his arms loosened and Keith was able to escape his hold. Leaving Lance curled up on the couch. Blue noticing this hopped up and snuggled with Lance in Keith’s place. Keith smiled as Red followed him to the kitchen for her morning coffee filter.

____

 

It had been a few days since Red’s tantrum and Lance was still finding shredded paper everywhere.

“I swear Shay I’m never going to find it all. I’ll be finding shredded whatever for the rest of my life.” Lance was watching the clock now waiting for his shift to finish. The last 20 mins felt more like 20 hours.

Lance’s phone buzzed with a number he hadn’t been expecting. The lawyers Allura had set him up with had just been emailing him with updates it’s weird that they would call.

“Shay I gotta take this, lawyer stuff.” Lance said ducking into the back room.

“Mr. McClain, how are you?” The chipper receptionist answered once he picked up.

“Fine, how are things going?” Lance asked not really remembering the woman’s name even though it was on the bottom of every email they sent.

“I’m calling to give you an update,” Her tone changed slightly adding an edge to it, “We are receiving some push back from the other party and things may take a bit longer than anticipated.”

“What do you mean by push back?” Lance frowned he didn’t want to deal with Lotor and more, he was moving on.

“They are claiming you did the damage yourself but don’t worry the evidence is on our side and will not be easily disproved if they try to do so.”

Lance sighed, of course Lotor would claim something like that.

“I do advise,” the receptionist continued, “That you refrain from all contact with the other party until the process is complete.”

“I haven’t been in contact with him.” His tone came out a bit harsher that he expected.

“Mr. McClain, I have no doubt that your words are true but it has been seen in other cases were one party will try to contact the other in an attempt to resolve the issue outside of court.” Her voice had lost its cheerfulness and settled into something more of a warning. “Be careful.”

The conversation left Lance feeling cold. Admittedly he had let his guard down lately, letting Lotor just fade out of his mind as a thing of the past. He didn’t need this worry. He was fine, he could handle himself. Lotor wasn’t worth the stress.

“Is Keith picking you up?” Shay asked from the register as Lance emerged from the back room.

“Yeah, why?”

“He’s here,” Shay said just as the café door swung open and Keith trekked in. “He doesn’t look happy.”

Lance waved to Keith who nodded before taking a seat next to the door, and Shay was right he didn’t look happy.

“He’s been grumpier than normal lately.” Lance had notices Keith was being standoffish this morning. Lance figure it was just a bad morning, or that Keith was frustrated with his car. Keith had been fixing it with the parts from Coran and currently had parts thrown all across the work bench in the garage.

Lance could see from behind the counter the grease smudge across Keith’s cheek. “I’ll see ya Shay.”

“Drive safe.”

Keith wordlessly led the way out the door. Lance watch Keith, he was stiff with his movements. Lance could feel the tension built up in Keith’s body on the ride home. He gave Keith a little squeeze at a stop light, like a hug, but Keith didn’t relax or react at all. Now this was something to worry about.

Once home Keith made no move to go into the house, instead he shrugged off his jacket and picked up a random part from the work bench and began to clean it. From the looks of it Lance could say that Keith has probably cleaned that part a few times today.

Lance approached cautiously, “Hey man.”

Keith didn’t lookup from what he was doing, “hey.”

Lance watched him, the tension was even more apparent now that Keith had his jacket off. “You ok?”

“’M fine.”

Lance watched Keith continued to clean the part like it offended him. “You sure?”

Keith sat the part down roughly and glared, “I’m fine Lance.”

“Ok, ok,” Lance raised his hand up to show no harm, “are you hungry?”

“No.” Keith continued to stare Lance down.

“Ok, I’m gonna start dinner so come in when you are hungry.”

Keith only nodded and returned to cleaning another part from the work bench. Lance figured he should give him some time to brood to get it out of his system, then hopefully Keith will return to his normal level of crankiness.

Lance took a shower then started to cook dinner. He had checked on Keith a few times just to make sure he hadn’t run off somewhere but every time he checked the garage Keith was either at the workbench or under the hood of Lance’s car. Lance would find it hot if he wasn’t so worried.

Keith finally came in after Lance was done eating, hurried through his meal and disappeared into the bathroom to shower.

Lance waited until he heard the shower shut off before starting the dishes. He was half way through them when Keith reemerge. After a few moments Keith walked past in the dining room then turned back to disappear into the living room. Lance paused his cleaning as not even a minute later Keith did it again, and again. Lance watched with an arched brow as Keith paced back and forth.

Having enough, Lance dried his hands and followed Keith back into the living room. Keith gave a start when he turned to head back and Lance was blocking his path.

“Keith?”

“I’m fine.” Keith made to move around but Lance sidestepped to continue to block his path.

“Then sit down.” Lance gently pressed Keith’s shoulders until he was sitting on the couch.

For the record it looked like Keith tried to stay there for about a second before he popped back up brushed by Lance and began to pace again.

“You are NOT FINE.” Lance crossed his arms.

Keith wouldn’t look up, “I AM FINE.”

“Lier!”

Keith finally stopped and glared at Lance much harsher than he did earlier in the garage.

“SIT DOWN NOW!” Lance grabbed Keith by the arms and forced him down on the couch again. “You are going to sit and relax!”

Keith tried to get up, “I’m FINE!”

Lance pushed him back down. Keith tried to get up a couple more times before Lance climbed onto his lap and pinned him to the couch. Keith pushed back toppling them to the side and pinning Lance under him on the couch.

Keith growled at him, “I’m fine! I’m freaking out! I’m fine!”

“Your extra emo moodiness says otherwise.”

Keith growled again and tried to get up but Lance rolled them off the couch and pinned Keith to the floor.

“Damnit Lance I’m…”

“If you say _I’m fine_ one more time I’m going to stick my sock in your mouth.” Lance matched the glare Keith was giving him.

Keith froze then pushed Lance up, overpowering him, and back until Lance was flat on his back again.

“Let go!” Keith tried to get his wrists free from Lance’s grip.

“No!” Lance managed rolled them pinning Keith to the floor again.

“Uugghh knock it off!” Keith flipped them trying to escape.

“I’m warning you I’m the youngest of five I can do this all day!” Lance gained the upper hand, pinning Keith down again.

Keith paused and smiled deviously up at Lance, “Really, I figured you were a middle child.”

Lance would have to ignore how sexy Keith currently looked under him because he couldn’t ignore the insult. “That’s it you’re getting the sock.” Lance reached back to pull a sock off his foot but was again toppled over then pinned beneath Keith.

“Why do you even care?” 

Lance would have to admit that that stung, “Why wouldn’t I?” he nearly whispered.

Keith’s face fell, he sat back on Lance’s legs and buried his face into his hands, “Why is this so hard?”

Lance reached up to pull Keith’s hands away, “It’s not, you just say what’s bothering you and if you say noth…”

“I’m gonna fail!” Keith dropped his hand defeated, “I’m not gonna get the job. I’m always going to be nothing, I’m fucking worth nothing…”

Lance kicked up his legs toppling Keith over again, pinned him down while cradled his face between his hands so he was sure that the other was looking at him.

“You are not nothing! You are worth the world to me! You are smart, strong and you’re gonna be the best and hottest cop out there. You are going to nail this interview, your gonn…”

Keith pulled Lance down smashing their lips together. Though the kiss was ruff Lance could feel Keith’s muscles start to relax. Lance pulled back to study Keith’s face, looking for any signs of doubt. There was still some there but he was not as wound up as he was before.

“Thanks,” Keith whispered, “I need that.”

“No prob. Are you going to relax now?”

“I’ll try.” Keith huffed out a sigh. “I’m still not sure…”

“Nope no more doubt.” Lance covered Keith’s mouth, “I don’t want to here anymore negativity.”

Keith huffed but said nothing as Lance removed his hands. Lance felt him shift under him, trying to get up.

“Nope.” Lance pushed him back again, “I’m not done with you yet.”

Lance kissed Keith much gentler this time. Running his fingers through Keith’s hair as it spilled across the floor underneath them. The longer he kissed him the more relaxed Keith became until he was sighing into the kiss.

Lance smile breaking the kiss, “Roll over I know you have knots in your back.”

Keith raised a brow but shifted enough to roll onto his stomach. Lance settled on the backs of Keith’s thighs and dug his palms into Keith’s back dragging a very sinful moan from the other.

“See told you there were knots.” Lance continued to work the muscles in Keith’s back. Pushing his shirt up so Lance could see the dragon tattoo up close. Most of it anyways. In just a few minutes Keith was melting into the floor.

After a moment Lance thought Keith had fallen asleep, “You good?” he whispered.

Keith only hummed.

Normally Lance would take this opportunity to have a little fun, to push things a bit further. The old Lance would have. Now he was hesitant. He had jumped into relationships head first so many times but now he couldn’t, he just couldn’t.

With a sigh he flopped down cuddling into Keith’s back who let out an ‘ _oof_ ’ beneath him.

“I should head to bed.” Lance moved Keith’s hair that had fallen in his face, dark sleepy eyes stared back at him. “You should too.”

Keith just hummed.

“Come on get up.” Lance shoved him and got to his feet. Passing through the kitchen to drain the sink, he’ll finish the dishes tomorrow, then headed to his room. In the living room again he found Keith still on the floor.

“You can’t sleep on the floor man, come on.” He nudged Keith with his foot, poking him in the ribs causing Keith to squirm a bit.

“Ugh,” Keith propped himself up on his elbows, “just gimme a sec.”

“Fine,” Lance bent down and kissed the corner of Keith’s lazy smile. “Goodnight Rufian.”

Keith rolled his eyes at the name, “Goodnight Lance.”

Lance went to bed trying his hardest to think about Keith and not the Lawyers or school. Thoughts of Keith led to much better dreams.

____

 

Keith watched Lance walk down the hall in awe. Lance had no idea what he had just done. No one had ever been able to get him to relax as much as he was now. He doesn’t even remember feeling this relaxed. Ever.

Keith groaned as he collapsed back to the floor and stretched his arms out. He felt his back pop in a satisfying way.

His anxieties had been building for days and they got the better of him. Normally Shiro would have noticed first but Keith had been avoiding him. Avoiding whatever lecture he knew he would get.

In the past Keith would have found his way to a bar and spent the night releasing the pent-up energy with whoever was willing. Now he was with Lance. So old methods were not an option anymore, not that they were good for him anyways.

He had tried to just distract himself with Lance’s car and working over the bag in the basement but his mind would wonder. Bringing up the worst-case scenarios every chance it got.

Lance had noticed which shouldn’t surprise Keith but it did. He forgets how observant Lance can be and his ability to break Keith from his thoughts, helping him clear his head.

Keith continued to lay there on the floor remembering the feeling of Lance’s hands on him. No one had ever touched Keith like that, he has never had a massage before. At least not one that wasn’t leading up to something else. He had had short ones meant to build him up and get him going but not one to relax him.

Finally he pushed himself up to his knees. His body felt like jelly as he got to his feet. He glared down at the front of himself because even though he knew there was nothing sexual about Lance’s hands on him his body didn’t seem to know the difference and acted accordingly. Keith had stayed on the floor knowing his sweatpants would do nothing to hide it. He didn’t want Lance to think he had to remedy the situation. It was his problem not Lance’s.

Slowly he headed to his room, it only took a few minutes to take care of himself before he was falling asleep with Lance still on his mind. Feeling even more relaxed than he had before.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr [Cuptat](https://cuptat.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Smells good.” Keith padded into the kitchen with what Lance thinks is the best bed head he’s ever seen.  
> “Good morning gorgeous.” Lance smiled as Keith rolled his eyes, “Today is the big day.”  
> “Don’t remind me.” Keith filled his cup with coffee and sat at the counter. Lance could feel him watching him as he plated the omelet and placed it in front of Keith.  
> “You didn’t have to make me breakfast.” Keith huffed but wasted no time digging into his breakfast.  
> “I wanted to, it’s a big day.” Lance cleaned up the mess he had made before grabbing his keys to go.  
> “Thanks.” Keith mumbled around a bit of food.  
> Lance leaned over and kissed his temple, “Good luck.” He smiled as Keith batted him away.  
> “Go before you’re late and quit being so damn domestic.”  
> “You love it.”  
> Lance’s phone buzzed again as he was getting in the car. Another unknown number.  
> He let it go to voice mail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are the last chapter. It took me a bit longer then planned but it's done! Thank you for all the wonderful comments and sorry for taking so long to answer them. I get nervous and forget to check my inbox. Seriously thanks for reading and I'll get a Halloween one shot up soon because I couldn't resist writing Klance in a haunted house/forest.

The last couple of days before Keith’s test had gone by much smoother than before. Lance could still see how nervous Keith was but he wasn’t being as closed off and would smile when Lance snuck up from behind to hug him.

Now today was the big day and Lance was up early to make sure Keith had a good start. That and he had the early shift today. Sadly he wouldn’t be here to see Keith off but he should be up before Lance had to leave.

Moving around the kitchen Lance made coffee, gave Red her coffee filter, made sure both her and Blue had food and water, then pet Blue as she watched him start making an omelet. Making breakfast was also keeping his mind off the paper he left on the other end of the counter that listed his dorm assignments for the next year and its cost. He had yet to decide on what to do with that, but now was not the time. Now was Keith’s day and he was going to make sure he started it off with a good breakfast.

Lance’s phone buzzed on the counter, looking over he didn’t recognize the number so he let it go to voicemail knowing they wouldn’t leave a message. None of them did. He had gotten several unknown numbers calling him lately and Lance ignored them. He didn’t want to chance who it might be on the other end. If it was truly important they would leave a message.

“Smells good.” Keith padded into the kitchen with what Lance thinks is the best bed head he’s ever seen.

“Good morning gorgeous.” Lance smiled as Keith rolled his eyes, “Today is the big day.”

“Don’t remind me.” Keith filled his cup with coffee and sat at the counter. Lance could feel him watching him as he plated the omelet and placed it in front of Keith.

“You didn’t have to make me breakfast.” Keith huffed but wasted no time digging into his breakfast.

“I wanted to, it’s a big day.” Lance cleaned up the mess he had made before grabbing his keys to go.

“Thanks.” Keith mumbled around a bit of food.

Lance leaned over and kissed his temple, “Good luck.” He smiled as Keith batted him away.

“Go before you’re late and quit being so damn domestic.”

“You love it.”

Lance’s phone buzzed again as he was getting in the car. Another unknown number.

He let it go to voice mail.

____

 

Keith hadn’t intended to get up so early but he could hear Lance in the kitchen and just knew he was up to something. He wasn’t wrong.

Like anything Lance made the omelet was delicious and it was just like Lance to get up early just to make sure Keith ate before his evaluation test. As much as Keith teased him or batted him away he loved it. He loved that Lance cared enough to do this for him.

Keith was pondering how to repay Lance when a movement across the kitchen caught his attention. He saw Blue laying in a spot of morning sun from the windows near the table but her attention was on the end of the counter, a spot Keith couldn’t see.

Except there on top of the counter sat a piece of paper.

Unattended.

Keith sat his fork down as quietly as possible and got up from his seat. He moved around the island quietly and quickly because he knew she was there, she was his cat after all.

He wasn’t quick enough, only two steps away and that little furry paw popped up over the edge of the counter and snatched the paper away.

“RED!” Keith chased after her. He didn’t know what that paper was but it might be important. “Get back here!”

She darted through the living room, through the dining room, back through the kitchen and down the hallway into Keith’s room. Blue lazily watching from her sun spot. Red hid under the bed, Keith knew that it was her hiding spot for all her treasures as he had to clean all the coffee filters out every couple weeks.

Managing to catcher her of guard as he lifted the mattresses up he grabbed her before she could dart away again. Red grumbled as he lifted her by the scruff to eye level.

“Drop it.” He glared at her.

She glared back batting a paw at his face.

Sighing Keith dropped the mattresses, “You adorable little monster.” He began to tug at the paper. Red’s growls grew a little louder before she finally released the paper.

“If it’s unimportant you can have it back.” Keith smoothed out the paper the best he could. There were a few tears and teeth marks but otherwise it was fine. 

Keith skimmed the letter. He should have stopped when he noticed Lance’s name across the top but his eyes had caught on to the words below it. Listing out Lance’s registration status, his classes, and his dorm room.

Keith’s memory kicked in to replay Shiro’s words to him, _“Lance needs a place to stay for the summer.”_

 _For the summer_. Keith had forgotten that this was a temporary thing. Lance was going to go back to school and Keith would have the house to himself again.

He’d be alone again.

It hadn’t bothered him before but now it did.

It hit him suddenly. It’s not that he minded being alone, it’s that he didn’t want to be without Lance.

Red managed to crawl her way up to Keith’s shoulders batting at the paper in his hand breaking him from his spiraling thoughts.

“No,” Keith stretched his arm out of her reach, “this is important you can’t have it.”

It was still late July. He had time. Judging from the date that was on the letter Lance’s classed would start in a little over a month. There was time to convince him to stay.

No… not convince. He would never try to make Lance do anything he didn’t want to. It’s Lance’s decision.

A clatter came from the kitchen, he hurried back to find Blue finishing what was left of his omelet.

“You’re suppose to be the good one!” He plucked Blue from the counter placing both her and Red on the floor. Red still swatted at the paper he clutched in his hand, having mercy on her he crumpled up another coffee filter and tossed it across the room. So what if it was her second one today, he still smiled as she darted after it.

Getting ready he was more distracted by thoughts of Lance leaving and the test he was about to take. Before walking out the door Keith tucked the letter into his jacket, he’ll talk to Lance after the evaluation test. He’ll offer… no ask if he will stay. It seemed like the right thing to do when you want someone to be your boyfriend.

____

 

Lance smiled at the flyer taped to the door of the café with his face on it. The advertisement for the line of iced coffees and blended smoothies to beat the heat. It was the picture Shay took of Lance the day he grabbed Keith’s clothes instead of his. Honestly it was kinda funny now, and that shirt did show off his arms very well. He’ll have to borrow Keith’s clothes again.

“Lance!” Shay called over from the counter, the morning rush was picking up. “I’m so happy to see you, grab your apron and help me.” She seemed a little less cheerful than normal but he knew it could take just one bad customer to ruin the whole day.

Lance did as he was told and quickly joined her at the counter. He focused on the morning rush and filling the orders as quickly as they came in. Pushing aside the nervousness he felt for Keith, and the unease that seemed to linger from the unknown calls this morning.

He was overreacting. He was sure Keith would ace the evaluation and get the job. Keith has worked so hard and is so smart there is no way that he wouldn’t get the job. As for the calls they could be anything so he shouldn’t worry about it.

The morning rush had finally died down when Shay pulled him into the stock room.

“Do you have a ride today?” Shay asked nervously, she was ringing the towel in her hands rather tightly.

Lance stilled her hands with his own. “I drove today, Keith has my car running better now, probably better than it has in years.”

Shay visibly relaxed but still held the towel tightly.

Lance placed his hands on his hips, “What’s wrong?”

Her gaze met his and he could see the worry there, it was almost like looking at Hunk before Lance made a regrettable decision.

“There was a call…,” Shay began, “they asked if you worked here, I said I couldn’t say. Then they asked when you would be coming in and… and I said I couldn’t give out that kind of information.”

Lance could see the tears building in her eyes, “Shhh, Shay it’s Ok you didn’t tell them anything its fine…”

“NO… It’s NOT!” Shays out burst silenced him. “Lance… I already gave out the flyers to be posted.” The tears were starting to roll down her cheeks, “Your face is all over the city with where you work. If someone wanted to find you I just gave them the address.” 

“Shay it’s fine really,” Lance put on his best smile for her, “I’m not worried about it. I have a feeling I know who it is and I’m not worried about him.”

“But… but…”

Lance pulled her into a hug, “No buts, it’s fine really.”

She sniffled into his shoulder, “Maybe you should take the day off or something?”

“No, I won’t let some jerk affect my life like that. Besides I have some friends that can help, I’ll give Allura a call and see if she can do.”

“Are you sure?” Shay asked pulling away.

“Yeah I’ll be fine.” Lance was really touched by her concern for him, “Now go splash some water on your face while I call Allura.”

Shay nodded and headed to the bathroom.

Lance did call Allura but it went to her voicemail, quickly he typed out a text to her, just enough to explain the situation. He really wasn’t that worried. In fact Lance had been working here the entire time he was with Lotor but he had never once came to visit Lance at work. It wasn’t a high-end coffee shop like the ones in the expensive shopping district where Lotor worked so he saw it as a waste of his time.

Lance doubted he’d show up here. Still, Lance can’t say he wasn’t a little relieved to see Allura respond.

A: I’ll look into it and stop by in a few.

L: Thanks

____

 

If Keith thought the wait before the evaluation was hard this was brutal. He had finished, hoping that he had done everything right and gave the correct answers. He was ready to walk out and nervously await his results. He had already made plans to stop the Balmara Café knowing Lance would help calm his nerves.

He was not prepared to be asked to stay and speak to the Chef of Police, Alfor himself.

Here he was sitting on the bench next to Romelle’s desk as he waited for Alfor to return from a meeting. A bench that just so happened to be in the main hall of the precinct.

Where everyone could see him.

Most would recognize him from the shop but the mechanics hardly ever made it up to the main building. This is why those who saw him gave him a casual acknowledgement with a curious look. He was clearly out of place.

“Alfor just called he’s running a bit late but will be here shortly.” Romelle smiled from over her desk.

“Oh… no problem.” Keith tried to relax but couldn’t.

He was trying to think of any possible reason Alfor would want to talk to him. Was he mad that Keith didn’t want to be a mechanic? Did he think that he wasn’t good enough? That he wouldn’t have the skills to be a good officer?

His thoughts were spiraling into vary negative territory and didn’t notice when someone was calling him until they were stepping into view.

“Geeze you’re out of it. What’s got you so lost in your head?” Shiro flicked Keith’s forehead to get him to look up before sitting next to him on the bench.

“Uh… nothing.” He tried not to fidget.

Shiro was the last person Keith wanted to see right now. He didn’t want him to know why he was here.

“Sure doesn’t look like nothing.” Shiro looked relaxed but Keith could see the tension settled into his shoulders. “So, what’s up?”

Keith tried his best to smile to ease his brother’s worries. If he relaxed Shiro would relax.

“I have a meeting about work stuff.”

“Work stuff?” Shiro teased, “How informative…”

“Hey, you don’t need to keep tabs on me,” Keith huffed forging irritation but failing at holding back his smile.

“Fine,” Shiro sighed, “Will you tell me later?”

“Sure,” Keith said.

“Good cause I can’t stick around to drag it out of you. I’ve got to go check on someone.” Shiro got to his feet that is when Keith noticed the glint of metal.

“Did they give you a new arm?” Keith grabbed Shiro’s right hand, the metal shiner then before with new accents of white.

“Yeah, Allura and the Holt’s hooked me up with a new model. It’s stronger than before and more comfortable.” Shiro flexed the fingers for show, “I’ll tell you about it later when you tell me all about your _work stuff_.”

“You got it.” Keith gave one more wave as Shiro walked away, the tension was visible in Shiro’s back and that left an unsettling feeling in Keith’s stomach.

Which he had no time to ponder about because just as Shiro disappeared around the corner Alfor came around it.

“Mr. Kogane, I apologize for making you wait my meeting ran a bit longer than I anticipated.” Alfor took Keith’s hand as he stood to greet him. “Please, step into my office.”

Taking a seat in Alfor’s office left Keith feeling just as exposed as sitting on the bench. The windows around the office gave everyone outside of it a clear view of who was inside. Keith was grateful that his back was to them but still he felt watched.

“I apologize again for my delay.” Alfor sat behind his large desk smiling over it at Keith.

“Not a problem Sir.” Keith forced himself to sit straight.

“Alright let’s get to it.” Alfor tapped onto his phone that sat in front of him. “I asked the evaluation team to send me your results as soon as you finished and I must say I’m impressed.”

Alfor smiled up at him again making Keith shift with nervousness.

“Impressed but not surprised. See Keith I’ve been keeping an eye on you ever since Shiro brought you in. He wasn’t the only one who could see your potential.” Alfor relaxed back in his chair, “I’ve been hoping you would consider becoming an officer, I believe you have something that our team could benefit from. A knowledge that most lack.”

Keith had no idea what this _knowledge_ could be. “I’m not sure I follow Sir.”

“You have not had an easy life. Even without knowing your past I can see it in the way you work, the way you present yourself that you know what it truly means to have to survive. You’ve spent time on these streets.”

“That was a long time ago.” Keith did not expect this conversation to happen.

Alfor gave him another friendly smile, “That maybe but you know it is something that will never leave you.”

Keith thought back to making the fire for Lance, Alfor was right there are things you never forget. There are things that stay with you forever.

Keith had come to terms with his past but… “I always thought that was a bad thing.”

“Oh no, Keith in here it is a good thing.” Alfor leaned forward again making it clear that Keith needed to listen. “In here we have the most interaction with those in situations that you were once in. This is a place where they can get help if they chose. That is where the challenge is, getting those to accept the help we offer instead of returning to the streets and turning to crime.” Alfor sighed, “I’ve seen more and more chose the latter over the years and I’m hoping that having someone like you, who would better understand their situation, will help turn that around.”

Keith didn’t know how to respond as he never believed that he would benefit from his time spent on the streets.

Alfor continued, “I’ve been setting a new team, one that will handle special cases involving the homeless and domestic disturbances. Our most common issues. If you accept, you will be required to undergo additional training on top of your police training to handle these sensitive situations, but if your results from the evaluation is anything to go by I don’t think we need to worry about that.” Alfor smiled again, “So how does Officer Kogane sound?”

____

 

No matter how many times Lance assured Shay everything was good he would still catch her trying to destroy one of their towels by wringing it to death. Allura did stop by earlier and assured them that she had sent Shiro out to _have a chat_ with Lotor but Lance had yet to hear how that turned out.

Lance honestly just wanted to know how much Shiro made Lotor squirm. He would have loved to see that conversation. The lunch rush was coming to an end and Lance only had an hour or so left in his shift. Everything was fine. In fact Lance was more worried about Keith since he hadn’t heard from him yet.

“Shay put the towel down.” Lance said as he cleaned the espresso machine. “Wasn’t your shift over an hour ago?”

“I’m not leaving Lance,” Shay put the towel down but didn’t look up. “Not until Ryan comes in for the next shift.”

“Ugh, fine but you’re not doing anything. I’ll do all the work, you can just hang out.” Lance huffed.

Time was going by slowly. It was driving him nuts. He checked his phone again, only two minutes had past since the last time he checked it and still no message from Keith. He was too distracted with his phone that he didn’t notice the chime from the doors.

“Well this is just as hideous as I imagined it.” An all too familiar voice broke through Lance’s distractions.

Lance didn’t bother with a smile, didn’t bother to move from where he was leaning against the back counter, didn’t even bother to look up right away. What he did do was raise his hand up to prevent Shay from intervening. Without looking he slightly shook his head. He could handle Lotor.

“Really Lance after all we had are you just going to ignore me?” Lotor voice was honey sweet. It was the one he used many times to get Lance to do what he wanted.

Lance did not look up from his phone, “You’re not worth my time.”

Lance sent a quick text to Allura saying Lotor was here. He didn’t see her reply as that is when he opened his video camera, pushed record and put his phone in the front pocket of his apron.

Lance did his best to sound uninterested, “What do you want?”

“I just want to talk to you, talk about us…”

“There is no _us,_ we are not a thing.” Lance plainly stated.

“Of course we are, I love you…” Lotor continued with his honey sweet tone.

“Don’t ever say those words to me again.” Lance was having trouble keeping the venom out of his voice. “You don’t know what love is.”

“But I do,” Lotor was setting something on the counter, “I even got this for you, brand new and it’s all yours.”

Lance glance down at the keys that Lotor had set there. The BMW logo facing up, the dealership tag still hanging from the ring.

Lance looked from the keys back up to Lotor’s face, “No thank you and I think you should leave.”

There, Lance saw it as the words left his mouth, the small twitch in Lotor’s lips that showed he was losing his patience.

“Please, Lance you can’t go through life throwing away every good thing you have. No one would ever do this for you,” Lotor picked up the keys trying to hand them to Lance. “No one will ever want you like I do, love you like I do. Don’t push me away I don’t want you to be alone.”

Lance slowly pushed himself off the counter, taking the two steps forward to come face to face with Lotor. Pushing the keys away with an open palm.

He spoke slowly and sternly. “We are not together anymore. I do not accept your gift to replace my car that you destroyed. Nothing you do or say will get me to drop the lawsuit against you. I’m going to tell you one more time that you need to leave.”

Lance watched as the pleading look disappear from Lotor’s face was replaced by a scowl. His stance changed to that of a challenging one.

This was the real Lotor. This was the Lotor Lance was foolish enough to think he could change and Lance was not surprised at all by the words that were now coming from his ex’s mouth.

“Who do you think you are?! Without me you are nothing, a worthless rat that no one wanted! Couldn’t even keep that slut you had before! I should have left you long ago just like she did, just like everyone else! I was kind to take care of you to love you when no one else would, and this is the thanks I get. We could have been great…”

“You need to shut the fuck up right now!” A voice boomed behind Lotor causing him to spin around in place taking his wrath off of Lance and for a split-second and Lance panicked. He had grown numb to Lotor’s venomous words but he feared for whoever interrupted them.

There standing just inside the door, just a few feet from them was Keith. Lance hardly recognized his voice, he had never heard that tone from Keith before.

“Shut the fuck up and get the fuck out!” Keith stepped closer to Lotor, challenging him.

“Oh it’s you,” Lotor hissed, “Haven’t you interfered enough! This is no business of yours!”

“Like hell it is! You will not speak to my boyfriend that way!” Keith’s tone was harsh, and though Lance couldn’t see Lotor’s face anymore it must have shown how Keith got under his skin.

Because Keith was now smirking, “That’s right, he’s moved on, and no matter how much of your daddy’s money you throw around he will never go back to the likes of you. That’s what this is, a buy off right?”

Lotor’s body was ridge and Lance was actually becoming concerned.

Keith continued, “You can’t fix the problem yourself, had to call daddy up and beg him for his help, can’t be man enough to let it go, to let Lance go. He’s too good for you, hell he’s too good for me, but you don’t deserve him! You are the one who is nothing without him!”

Lance saw Lotor’s movement, he saw the pull back of his arm but he couldn’t get over the counter fast enough. Lance watched as his sudden movement unintendedly distracted Keith as Lotor’s fist collided with his face. Throwing Keith back into the glass door. Then with nothing but rage Lance’s fist pounded into Lotor’s face and chaos erupted around them.

____

There was a ringing in his ears and a lot of shouting he couldn’t understand. Shay was taking up most of his focus as she led him to the bathroom. They had to step around something. Someone on the floor.

She was holding something to his face. A towel. He tried to pull it away but it came back scarlet then Shay was pulling his hand away. “Don’t it’s still bleeding.”

Keith sat up on the counter Shay guiding his back against the mirror. He looked down at himself.

Fuck, this was his only nice shirt. The crisp white button up was now splattered with blood.

“HE PUNCHED MY BOYFRIEND!” Lance’s voice cut through the small room echoing off the tiles. Keith hissed as it added to the ringing in his ears.

He had no idea who Lance was yelling at but soon he was standing in front of him taking Shay’s place.

“Hey babe,” Lance spoke softly with a small smile on his face but it didn’t reach his eyes, his red rimed eyes.

“Hey.” Was all Keith managed.

“How are you feeling?” Lance asked as he pushed some of Keith’s hair out of his face.

“Kinda pissed.” And Keith was, he really, really was. He wanted nothing more than to go and pound his fist into Lotor’s face.

“I know but how is your head?” Lance smiled a more genuine smile this time.

“I’ve been better.”

Lance pulled the towel from his face and replaced it with a clean one. Slowly he began cleaning up Keith’s face.

“He got you good, you’ve got a nasty split lip.” Lance gently wiped at it and Keith tried his best not to flinch at the sting.

“I’ll live.” The ringing in his ears had stopped. Everything was becoming clearer. “Are you okay?”

Lance didn’t answer him just continued to clean his busted face.

Keith stopped Lance’s hands, “Lance are you okay?”

Keith watched as tears started to weld up in Lance’s eyes. He leaned forward and wraped Keith into a hug.

Keith could tell Lance was blaming himself. “Hey, I’m fine really. It’s just a scratch.”

Lance huffed a laugh into Keith’s shoulder, “Have you seen yourself?”

“Don’t need to.”

Lance pulled back, “You didn’t have to do that you know.”

“I wasn’t going to let him talk to you that way.”

“It was my fight.”

“A fight I was willing to back you up on.”

“But you got hurt.”

“It happens.”

“Dammit Keith.”

“Lance, it’s fine.” Keith tried to smile, “You got him back right?”

Lance held back a small smile, “He went down quick, left him on the floor.”

“Good he deserved it.” Keith sighed, “Wish I could have hit him.”

“Keith no.” Lance smile contradicted his words.

“I’ve wanted hit him ever since you introduced him as your boyfriend.”

Lance paused with the towel an inch away from Keith’s face. He was searching for something in Keith’s eyes but Keith didn’t know what.

“Why?”

“He’s an asshole.”

Lance studied him, “I mean then, he was nice back then.”

“NO, he was still an asshole though it seems I’m the only one who thought so.” Keith paused.

Lance looked ashamed.

“I guess I never really thought he was good enough for you. Not Nyma… or anyone you looked at that …wasn’t me.” Keith whispered the last part.

Lance is frozen for a moment before he was grabbing Keith’s face and kissing him hard. Keith stiffened shocked then flinched at his lip stinging.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” Lance stepped back.

“NO!” Keith grabs Lance around the waist and pulls him back to him wrapping his legs around Lance’s hips. “Just not so hard…”

He pulls Lance in for a gentler kiss and Lance returns with a smile.

____

 

Lance still feels guilty. Looking at Keith’s face with his split lip is not helping as their kissing has it bleeding again. He’s applying more pressure to it when Shiro came in.

“Looks like he found you before I could find him.” Shiro frowned once he saw Keith, “What’s the damage?”

“Split lip.” Keith said.

“How did that happen?” Shiro moved Keith’s chip to get a better look at his face.

Keith huffed and shooed Shiro’s hands away, “I came here to celebrate and found that asshole harassing my boyfriend. I told him to leave. There may have been a few insults flying around and he punched me in the face.”

“And that is when Lance hit him?” Shiro asked and Keith nodded.

Their conversation continued but Lance was stuck some of Keith’s words. He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face.

“Celebrate what?” he asked interrupting whatever Shiro was in the middle of saying.

Keith met his eyes with a grin of his own.

“Oh, oh you got it?! Can I say it?” Lance was so happy he was hopping in place. This was so cool!

Keith continued to smile as much as his lip would let him, giving Lance a small nod as permission.

Lance excitedly turned to Shiro, who looked a baffled, before squealing, “Keith’s going to be a Police officer!”

Shiro’s eyes went wide as he turned to Keith, “Is that why you were waiting for Alfor?”

Keith nodded again, “Wants me to join a new team for special cases.”

Lance couldn’t help himself, he surged forward and wrapped Keith in a hug, “I’m so proud of you.”

“Wow.” Shiro was beaming with that proud brother look, “I didn’t even know you were interested. But good job, I can’t wait to start training you.” He gave Keith a playful punch in the arm where they were wrapped around Lance.

“But back to business,” serious Shiro was back, “You both will need to come back to the station.”

Lance sighed reluctant to leave Keith’s arms. “Fine…”

The trip to the station took a good chunk out of the rest of their day. Even with the video on Lance’s phone showing the whole ordeal. After all the statements and interviews, Lance was done. Not even the satisfying knowledge that Lotor was not getting out of this one was enough to keep him going. He was trying not to fall asleep on the bench next to Romelle’s desk when Shiro finally told them they were good to go.

“You head back, I’ll pick up some food on the way home.” Lance bumped Keith in the direction of his bike as he headed to his car.

Keith nodded looking just as tired as Lance, he was glad to see the swelling from his lip had gone down.

By time Lance got home with a couple of pizzas Keith had cleaned himself up and was lounging on the couch with an ice pack on his face.

“I got pizza babe.” Lance dropped the boxes on the counter and began pulling plates from the cabinets.

Keith had followed Lance into the kitchen but was now standing in the doorway shuffling his feet back and forth.

“You ok?” Lance asked as he watched Keith continue to fidget in the door way.

“Um… this is yours.” Keith unfolded a tater looking piece of paper Lance didn’t notice he was holding. “Red got a hold of this earlier… looks important.”

Lance took the paper as Keith handed it to him. It was his dorm assignments with added teeth and claw marks courtesy of Red.

Lance tried not to grimace as he reread the paper, he glanced back up at Keith to see him still fidgeting.

Realizing he was waiting for him Lance tried to explain, “I… Um…”

“Stay.” Keith’s voice cut him off.

Lance paused and watched Keith as he hesitantly stepped closer.

“You can stay if… if you want.” Keith was looking at his hands. “You don’t have to leave.”

Lance just stared at Keith. He was just so cute.

And Lance suddenly realized how much of an idiot he had been. He had been stressing over this dorm situation for no reason. He should have known he could just ask Keith.

“You don’t have to worry about rent and… Shiro, if he ever has to move back in you can have my room,” Keith was rambling, “I can just move into the basement… or…”

“Keith you’re not moving into the basement.” Lance stopped that nonsense. “I’m not going to kick you out of your room.”

Keith finally looked up at Lance as he reached for Keith’s hands, “I’d love to stay.”

Keith’s smile was one sided as not to split his lip again.

“And…” Lance continued, “If you have no objections I say you move into my room with me.”

“But that’s Shiro’s room.”

“Not anymore.” Lance gave Keith a quick kiss on cheek, “He’s not here, we get the big room now.”

Keith huffed out a laugh as Lance handed him a plate.

“Now, Officer Kogane, what kind of pizza do you want?” Lance flipped open the pizza boxes, “We have to celebrate!”

 

The night ended perfectly. After a few shooter games and cuddling while watching a scary movie, to which Lance did not hide behind Keith’s shoulder for. 

But he did insist that because Keith picked such a bad movie that he had to stay with him tonight. Lance felt no guilt in the treatment of Shiro’s bed. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him and it’s not like Lance made any promises anyways. He was just happy to finally see the rest of Keith’s tattoo.

____

 

Keith packed the cooler with the food he made and hid it in Lance’s trunk while he was in the bathroom. And after a bit of convincing Keith got Lance to close his eyes half way through the drive to his surprise.

It was Friday so it was easy to find a parking spot close to where he wanted to be.

“Do I hear water?” Still keeping his eyes closed Lance perked up as Keith cut the engine.

The sounds from the lake were drifting into the car.

“You can look now.”

Lance opened them and looked over the water, “Is this… is it the lake? The one you told me about?”

Keith nodded, “Consider it a birthday present.”

“But my birthday is tomorrow.”

“An early birthday present, it’s going to be too crowded tomorrow.” Keith got out and unloaded the cooler and another bag, heading to an empty spot on the beach.

“Keith! This is awesome!” Lance ran a head going straight for the water. He stopped to suddenly double back and slip his phone into Keith’s pocket. With a quick kiss and a “Thanks babe.” Lance bounded into the water just barely tossing his shirt to the rocky sand before jumping in.

Keith watched him as he sat the cooler down and set up their spot. Emptying his pockets on to the towel before running out to meet Lance.

After a while they tired themselves out and trekked back up to the towels.

“I made lunch.” Keith said opening the cooler.

Lance looked concerned for a second before Keith handed him a hoagie sandwich and a bag of chips.

“Oh man there for a second I thought you were going to pull roman out of there.” Lance laughed and took a bite of his sandwich.

Keith also pulled out a small box with a pink sticker on top. Lance nearly jumped on it the second he saw it.

“Is that cupcakes?!” Lance opened it, “Oh and they are the lemon ones! Keith how did you know?”

“Allura said they were your favorite.”

“Babe, this is perfect, thank you.” Lance leaned in and kissed him, “and since this is for my birthday, you’re mine tonight.”

Keith nearly choked on his food and felt his face heat up. Lance just sat back and took another bite of his sandwich with a smug look on his face.

It was later on the way home that Keith realized how happy he was. He had a boyfriend and it was Lance. Keith is still unsure as to how it all happened but he’s happy it did.

Lance was flipping through the selfies they had taken at the lake. “This one is my favorite.” He quickly showed Keith, “I’m going to send it to you, give me your phone.”

Keith didn’t have much of a say because not even a minute later Lance had cropped the selfie in half and set Keith’s background to show just himself and his own phone to the picture with just Keith.

“Look!” Lance held up their phones side by side to show the complete selfie of both of them. Keith smiled, Lance was so fucking adorable. He was never changing his background again. 

____

 

Lance may have gotten a bit excited when he finally got the settlement check from Lotor. It took two weeks since the incident in the café. Normally lawyer stuff takes longer then that but it settled quickly because of Lotor punching Keith.

Lance was still pissed about that and would gladly punch Lotor again. But it was over with now, he has moved on to something much better. He almost wants to kick himself for not trying to date Keith before.

Now he sat on the floor surrounded by pieces of wood covered in colored carpet while trying to find the instructions he had not two seconds ago.

It was the only thing he splurged part of the money on. Since Keith had the mustang purring like a kitten and running better than it probably ever had he didn’t need to buy a new car. The funny part is it wasn’t even for him, he just likes to spoil Blue and sometimes Red too, when she was nice.

Speaking of Red.

Lance did a quick glance around the couch and sure enough Red was trying to escape with the instructions.

“Get back here!” Lance chased after her.

It didn’t last long as Keith finally came home from training and was able to snatch Red up and pry the instructions from her jaws.

“What is this?” He asked brow pinched as he tried to decipher what was on the paper.

“It’s a Voltron Cat Condo,” Lance excited took the instructions back, “For our fur babies.”

Keith arched a brow but said nothing more.

“How was training?” Lance asked while stealing a kiss as Keith hung his jacket up. Sadly he had not gotten his uniform yet. Lance couldn’t wait to see that. In fact he may spend way too much time thinking about it.

“Exhausting.” Keith said following Lance back to his spot on the floor where he was assembling the cat condo of awesomeness.

“Sit relax, your home now.” Lance got back to putting the remaining pieces together. Keith who joined him on the floor was kind enough to guard the instructions from Red as Lance worked. Soon they had a 6ft tall Voltron in their living room for Blue and Red to nap on.

“The first thing you buy with your money is this?” Keith tone was a bit harsh but he was smiling.

“Isn’t it glorious?” Lance stood back admiring his work, he was proud he got it all together himself. Normally he’s not good at building things.

“Sure.” Keith balled up the instructions and set it on the top of Voltrons head. Red seeing this bolted up Voltron’s leg quickly setting it off balance and toppling the whole thing over to the side with a load crash.

Thankfully it didn’t come apart.

“I’ll screw it to the floor.” Keith said before disappearing to find the screw driver.

Lance watched Keith work, loving how stupidly domestic they had gotten. This is what he had always wanted. Someone to come home to, someone to come home to him. It’s so silly to him now that he thought he could have this with Lotor or anyone else. Keith was just perfect for him.

Soon Voltron was unmovable and Blue had claimed her spot at the highest point, on top of the red arm.

Lance was struck with an idea, “We should go on a date.” They hadn’t been on one in a week or so.

“Right now?” Keith asked putting his tools away.

Lance sighed, “I really want to go on a breakfast date. But like… I like the idea of pancakes on a date but I hate getting up early.”

“You know there is a diner that serves breakfast 24hrs.” Keith sat next to Lance on the couch wrapping an arm around him to pull him in close.

“But it’s not the same,” Lance whined, “the lighting‘s all wrong.”

“How about we stay up all night then go to the diner at sunrise?” Keith reached for the game controller knowing they could spend all night battling each other.

“Yeah! Then we can stuff ourselves with pancakes and crash after!”

“Sounds good to me.” Keith smiled.

“Ok but you have to order breakfast too, if you get a burger I’ll kill you.” Lance grabbed the controller as the system booted up.

“Love you babe.”

“Love you too, Mullet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it!
> 
>  
> 
> Tumblr [Cuptat](https://cuptat.tumblr.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> **Do Not Repost anywhere. I do not give anyone permission to post my work anywhere else.**


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